Associate Professor of Sanskrit Literature
About
Research interests:
I work broadly on Sanskrit literature and pre-modern India. My research has, for the most part, focused on various aspects of the vast classical Hindu legal tradition known as Dharmaśāstra. Specific topics on which I have written include: the pre-modern custom of sati or widow-burning; the origin and evolution of the institution of widow-asceticism; inheritance law; the practice of judicial ordeals; systems of sin and ritual expiation; theories and rituals of gifting; the early sociolinguistics of Sanskrit; debates concerning kinship and marriageability; and historical processes of canonization. My first book, Brahmanical Theories of the Gift: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Dānakāṇḍa of the Kṛtyakalpataru, was published in 2015 as part of the Harvard Oriental Series. It constitutes the first critical edition and complete translation into any modern language of a dānanibandha, a genre of medieval Sanskrit text dedicated to the culturally and religiously important topic of gift-giving. My second book, Widows Under Hindu Law, was published in 2023 by Oxford University Press. It constitutes the first exhaustive study of the treatment of widows within Dharmaśāstra literature. Specifically, the book includes detailed textual and historical analysis of the only four widow-related issues that became topics of sustained discussion and heated debate within the Hindu legal tradition: widow remarriage and levirate; widows’ rights of inheritance; widow-asceticism; and the custom of sati.
Current projects:
My major project at the moment is the creation of a diplomatic edition and annotated translation of an early unpublished commentary on the Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra, a major foundational work of the Hindu legal tradition. This lengthy, yet incomplete commentary is significant not only in that it provides additional evidence about the history of Hindu law and Indian society more generally, but also in that it is an especially early example of a Dharmaśāstra commentary, being perhaps the third oldest such commentary to have been discovered. In creating an edition and translation of this commentary, I am collaborating with my former teacher, Patrick Olivelle (emeritus professor of Sanskrit at the University of Texas at Austin).
Teaching interests:
My teaching is divided more or less evenly between language courses in Sanskrit and non-language courses with a focus on India, particularly classical India. I teach a yearlong introductory Sanskrit sequence every other year for all interested students. By the end of the year, students can expect to be reading ancient Sanskrit texts in the original language. The following yearlong intermediate Sanskrit sequence will be entirely devoted to reading Sanskrit texts and introduce students to an array of fascinating and influential works written in Sanskrit. For non-language courses, I regularly teach a survey lecture course on Hinduism (“Introduction to Hinduism”), as well as other courses on early Indian literature and religion.
