Indian Religions Podcast

Digital Humanities

Pāṇḍitya: Mapping Sanskrit Texts Online

Tyler Neill discusses the new platform Pāṇḍitya, an online graph visualization tool illustrating connections between works and authors in the Pandit Prosopographical Database of Indic Texts. It also facilitates exploration of the Sanskrit E-Text Inventory (SETI) as an overlay on the Pandit network.  Tyler's blog "Sanskrit and Tech with Tyler" is …

Guest: Tyler NeillDate: 5/15/2025
If All the World Were Paper

In If All the World Were Paper: A History of Writing in Hindi (Columbia UP, 2024), Tyler W. Williams puts questions of materiality, circulation, and performance at the center of his investigation into how literature comes to be defined and produced within a language, specifically, premodern Hindi. Williams proposes new methods for working with …

Guest: Tyler W. WilliamsDate: 11/14/2024Publisher: Columbia University Press
Religious Minorities Online

Religious Minorities Online (RMO) is the premier academic resource on religious minorities worldwide, reflecting the state of the art in scholarship. It is written by leading scholars and is rigorously peer-reviewed. Available as an Open Access publication and written in an accessible style, Religious Minorities Online is an indispensable …

Teaching (and Learning) at a University Online

There is a lot of talk about online learning, and particularly universities going online. Today I talked to Caleb Simmons, Executive Director of Arizona Online (and notable scholar of religion and South Asian Studies). We talk about how online learning is done at Arizona and the promise of online learning generally. Listeners might be …

Guest: Caleb SimmonsDate: 10/4/2023
Sangraha

Sanjaya Singhal discusses Sangraha, an ambitious digital enterprise cataloguing India's millions of decaying Sanskrit manuscripts. Sangraha is a detailed, descriptive catalogue allowing users to find relevant manuscripts with a wide range of search terms. Eventually it will have 2.5 million entries. Raj Balkaran is a scholar of Sanskrit …

Guest: Sanjaya SinghalDate: 6/21/2023
Online Sanskrit Study Resources

A conversation with Michael Fiden about University of Texas at Austin’s new open access online resource for second-year Sanskrit students, either for self-study or as a supplement to instruction. Raj Balkaran is a scholar of Sanskrit narrative texts. He teaches at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and at his own virtual School of Indian …

Guest: Michael FidenDate: 10/31/2022
SOAS’ Yoga Studies Online

Raj Balkaran speaks with Jacqui Hargreaves & Ruth Westoby about SOAS’ exciting new online learning platform: Yoga Studies Online. Raj Balkaran is a scholar of Sanskrit narrative texts. He teaches at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and at his own virtual School of Indian Wisdom. For information see rajbalkaran.com.

Guest: Jacqui Hargreaves and Ruth WestobyDate: 10/12/2022
Sanskrit Tools on the Web (Part 2)

This interview continues the conversation with Martin Gluckman, Researcher at University of Capetown and Director at Sanskrit Research Institute. We discuss his Panini Research Tool, Sanskrit Writer, Text to Speech Sanskrit Tool and research into the Indus Valley Script. For the first part of this interview, go here.  Raj Balkaran is a scholar, …

Guest: Martin GluckmanDate: 11/18/2021
Sanskrit Tools on the Web (Part 1)

This interview features amazing open-access digital Sanskrit projects spearheaded by Martin Gluckman, Researcher at University of Capetown and Director at Sanskrit Research Institute. We discuss Martin’s Sanskrit and computer science backgrounds as well as the on-line Sanskrit dictionary.  For the second part of this interview, go here.  Raj …

Guest: Martin GluckmanDate: 11/11/2021
Online Dharmaśāstra Library

Dr. Don Davis (Professor and Chair, Department of Asian Studies) speaks about the newly launched Resource Library for Dharmaśāstra Studies, a digitized open educational resource hosted at the University of Texas, Austin. We discuss the genesis and utility of this important online resource, highlighting the herculean efforts of Dr. Patrick Olivelle.

Guest: Don DavisDate: 9/9/2021