Indian Knowledge Systems: Webinars

India Studies Webinar | Negotiating Discipline:Askesis, Poetry, and Desirein Sri Aurobindoand Tagore

Late-Victorian and modernist writers have been famously preoccupied with ideas of personal and poetic discipline (or the lack thereof). How are such notions of askesis articulated within the global contexts of the twentieth century? This talk examines how two prominent twentieth-century writers-Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore-engage with askesis in their works. Both writers were deeply fascinated by asceticism and by the figure of the ascetic. I argue that they used literary form as a space to reflect on and experiment with askesis as both figure and method.

For Aurobindo, blank verse becomes a formal reflection not only of heterodox ascetic practice but also of a strategic orientation toward a transhistorical and transcultural vision of future poetry and society. For Tagore, the figure of the ascetic functions as an aesthetic cipher against which nascent political ideas and imaginaries may be tested. Drawing on Aurobindo’s The Future Poetry (1917-1920) and Tagore’s “The Ghat’s Story” (1884), Rajarshi (1887), Achalayatan (1912), and Sanyasi (1917), this talk illuminates the centrality of askesis to global twentieth-century critical thought on the theo-politics of literary form.

India Studies Webinar | Beyond Sound The Material Lives of Mantras in Contemporary South Asia

This talk explores how mantras move across media and social worlds in contemporary South Asia, drawing on new research from the ERC Synergy Project MANTRAMS. While mantras are often understood primarily as sonic or textual phenomena, their circulation increasingly depends on visual, material, and digital forms: printed and inscribed objects, devotional paraphernalia, notebooks for likhita japa, viral digital images, and new modes of performance and embodiment. Based on recent fieldwork in Varanasi, the talk examines how these diverse media transform the meaning, efficacy, and social life of mantras, and how they participate in broader debates about authenticity, authority, and religious practice today. By situating mantras within their multisensory and multimodal ecologies, the lecture highlights the complex ways in which sound, matter, and memory interact in the everyday religious lives of South Asian communities.

Dr. Borayin Maitreya Larios is an Assistant Professor for Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Vienna and a Principal Investigator of the ERC Synergy Project MANTRAMS: Mantras in Religion, Media and Society in Global Southern Asia. He leads Task Force 3 on the materiality of mantras, focusing on their visual, embodied, and digital forms across South Asia. His work combines ethnographic field research with the study of contemporary and classical textual traditions, exploring how mantras circulate across media and how they shape everyday religious practices. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Maharashtra and North India and is currently curating an exhibition on the material culture of mantras as part of the MANTRAMS project. https://stb.univie.ac.at/en/about-us/team/borayin-larios/

India Studies Webinar | Thinking Interreligious Studies from an Indian Vantage Point

Interreligious studies is a young and growing academic field that studies interreligious relations and dialogue. This presentation asks what interreligious studies might look like if the Indian experience is centred within this academic field, not merely as an object of study but as the vantage point from which concepts such as dialogue, research, and inter-religiosity are understood. On the most fundamental level, for much of India’s history, there was no single concept in use that corresponds directly to the English word “religion”. At the same time, India has a rich history of intergroup encounters and debates, and its own conceptual vocabulary for navigating plurality. The presentation offers initial points of reflection on interreligious studies from an Indian perspective.

India Studies Webinar | The In Between Notes Understanding the Subtle Sound of Hindustani Classical

In Western music, Microtonality usually refers to minute intervals smaller than a semitone and is often seen as a unique and experimental practice. However, in Hindustani classical music, these subtle pitch movements are not rare or unusual; they are part of common musical expression. This talk explores how Hindustani musicians use delicate shifts in notes (Swaras) to bring music to life, make phrases expressive, and create a unique aesthetic atmosphere. Instead of focusing on mathematical calculations or fixed pitch values, which have often been the focus, the lecture approaches microtonality from the viewpoint of musical performance, by keeping the practice of Raags at its centre. Drawing on examples from prominent Raags such as Yaman, Bhairav, Multani, Miyan-ki-Todi, and Marwa, it shows how minor variations, ornamentations, and melodic curves help define a Raag’s personality, known as Swarup, or identity. These “in-between notes” are essential: if they are missing or altered, the Raag can lose its character or even resemble another Raag altogether. Intended for a broad, diverse audience, the talk offers an engaging introduction to the character of Hindustani classical music through sound, nuance, and creativity.