Position:

Boden Professor of Sanskrit

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / Balliol College

Email:

christopher.minkowski@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

• Vedic language, literature and religion
• Sanskrit Epic
• Early Modern Intellectual History and History of Science

Current Projects:

• Sanskrit Knowledge Systems on the Eve of colonialism
• Comparative History of Philology in Early Modern Asia
• Oxford Early Modern South Asia Project

Courses Taught:

• Sanskrit and Vedic language and texts
• South Asian intellectual traditions
• History of Sanskrit and of the study of Sanskrit
• History of early South Asia

Recent Publications:

• ‘The Aśvistuti and the Enigma of the Mahābhārata’, in Silvia D’Intino and Caterina Guenzi, eds. Aux Abords de la Clarière: Ètudes indiennes et comparées en l’honneur de Charles Malamoud  (Paris: Brépols, 2012) 79-92. 
• “Advaita Vedānta in Early Modern History”.  In Religious Cultures in Early Modern India: New Perspectives, ed. Rosalind O’Hanlon and David Washbrook. Special Volume of South Asian History and Culture  2.2 (2011) 205-31.
• “Where the Black Antelope Roam: Dharma and Human Geography in India,” in eds. Kurt A. Raaflaub and Richard Talbert, Geography, Ethnography, and Perceptions of the World in Ancient Civilizations, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2010) 9-31.
•  “Sanskrit Scientific Libraries and their Uses:  Examples and Problems of the Early Modern Period,” in eds. F. Bretelle, C. Proust, Looking at it from Asia: The Processes that shaped the sources of the History of Science.  Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science 206 (2010) 81-114.
• “Nīlakaṇṭha’s Mahābhārata,” Seminar 608 (2010) 32-38.
• “I’ll Wash Out Your Mouth With My Boot: A Guide to Philological Argument in Early Modern Banaras,”  in ed. Sheldon Pollock,  Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History: Essays in Honor of Robert P. Goldman. (Delhi: Manhar, 2010) 117-41.
• Meanings Numerous and Numerical: Nīlakaṇṭha and Magic Squares in the Ṛgveda,"  in L. Kulikov and M. Rusanov eds, Indologica T. Ya. Elizarenkova  Memorial Volume (Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities, 2008) 315-28.
• "Nīlakaṇṭha and His Historical Context," Vostok (Oriens  - Moscow Academy of Sciences) 2008, No. 4: 37-49.
• The Study of Jyotiḥśāstra and the Uses of Philosophy of Science,"  Journal of Indian Philosophy, 36 (2008) 587-97.
• “Why Should We Read the Maṅgala Verses?” in ed. W. Slaje, The Śāstrārambha: Inquiries into the Preamble in Sanskrit  Abhandlungen für die Kunde des  Morgenlandes 62 (2008) 1-24.
• On the Success of Nīlakantha's Mahābhārata Commentary," in ed. Fr Squarcini, Boundaries, Dynamics and Construction of Traditions in South Asia, (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2005) 225-52.
• "Nīlakantha's Vedic Readings in the Harivamśa Commentary", in ed. Petteri Koskikallio, Epic, Khilas, and Purānas: Continuities and Ruptures. Proceedings of the Third Dubrovnik Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purānas, September 2002. (Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2005) 411-33.
• "Nîlakantha's Instruments of War: Modern, Vernacular, Barbarous," Indian Economic and social History Review,41 (2004) 365-85.
• "A Nineteenth Century Sanskrit Treatise on the Revolution of the Earth: Govinda Deva's Bhūmibhramana," SCIAMUS 5 (2004) 199-224.
• "On Sūryadāsa and the Invention of Bi-directional Poetry (vilomakāyva)," Journal of the American Oriental Society, 124.2 (2004) 325-33.
• "Competing Cosmologies in Early Modern Indian Astronomy," in eds Charles Burnett, Jan Hogendijk, and Kim Plofker, Ketuprakāśa: studies in the history of the exact sciences in honor of David Pingree (Leiden: Brill, 2004) 349-85.
• "The Vedastuti and Vedic Studies: Nīlakantha on Bhāgavata Purāna X.87," in eds A. Griffiths and J. E. M. Houben, The Vedas: Texts, Languages & Ritual. Proceedings of the Third International Vedic Studies Workshop, (Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2004) 125-42.

Further Info:

• Personal Webpage
• Inaugural Lecture: "King David in Oudh" available here