The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, founded in 1997 and based in Oxford, England, is a research academy focused on the study and teaching of Hindu cultures of India and Nepal. It develops academic programmes of education, research and publishing in Hindu studies. It aims to encourage the Hindu community in the academic study of their own traditions and cultures. From 2006 to 2020, it was granted the status of a "recognised independent centre" working with the University of Oxford.
Naming
When founded, the OCHS was for a short time known as the Oxford Centre for Vaishnava and Hindu Studies (OCVHS). The centre's lean towards Vaishnava traditions reflected the fact that its founding director, Shaunaka Rishi Das, is a Vaishnava priest. As the Centre grew, it became more inclusive and broader in scope regarding Hindu Studies, leading to its change of name. The Centre started out in a suburban house on Divinity Road with three students and a small library of donated books. It has since moved into a larger office in Magdalen Street, Oxford.
Educational programmes Most students are members of Oxford colleges and are studying for degrees in the faculties of Theology and Religion, Oriental Studies, or History and Anthropology. Since 1997, the centre has been inviting scholars to deliver lectures and tutorials at Oxford University. These include recipients of the Shivdasani and J.P. and Beena Khaitain Visiting Fellowships, with the Shivdasani Fellowship sponsoring Indian scholars and the J.P. and Beena Khaitan Fellowship helping scholars from other regions to come to Oxford. By these means the Centre encourages intellectual understanding between cultures of learning. The centre offers regular interdisciplinary lectures and seminars at Oxford including the named Majewski, Wahlstrom and Ford lectures.
One of the centre's longest-standing exchange programs is with Aarhus University, active nearly every term since October 2014. Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen, an OCHS Fellow, established the Memorandum of Understanding with the Aarhus University Department for the Study of Religion that enabled the exchange. Danish visiting students are hosted at the centre for one or more terms to further their Sanskrit studies. The centre has at times hosted large groups of visiting Aarhus students. In Spring 2016, on one such visit, a group of students came to the OCHS for a two-day seminar on the Haṭhayogapradīpikā.
Continuing Education Department Since 2003, the OCHS Continuing Education Department (CED) has facilitated access to Hindu Studies for adults in the UK at various locations, and online for a more international audience.
The centre's online courses explore Hindu beliefs and practices along with notions of Hindu identity in the lives of modern practitioners. Courses are offered such as "Introduction to Sanskrit", "Hinduism and Sacred Sound: Chant and Music", and "Philosophy of Yoga". The centre develops and releases new courses in conjunction with scholars globally, with 12 courses currently offered and several more in development. The online program had 734 students enrolled in 2018.
Besides online courses, the centre offers day schools and summer schools. Day schools held in London have explored topics such as Bhakti and the Upanisads in a condensed format. The OCHS has also organized summer schools every year since 2014, with each spanning around three days.
Library The library holds a collection of some 25,000 volumes received mainly by donation concentrating on the study of Hindu culture, religion, languages, literature, philosophy, arts and society. Areas of strength include Sanskrit grammar, poetics, philosophy, theology, comparative theology, and religions studies. The collection reached its present size with major donations from scholars across the globe.
Publishing Journal of Hindu Studies Since 2008, the centre has published the Journal of Hindu Studies in partnership with Oxford University Press. The Journal is fully refereed. The aim of the Journal is to create a forum for critical and constructive interdisciplinary discourse, exploring key questions and meta-issues relating to the developing field of Hindu Studies.
The Journal currently publishes three issues a year, one guest-edited and one open for submissions. Each issue contains approximately six articles in addition to book reviews, occasional review articles, and reports on work in progress. The third issue usually publishes conference and panel papers. The first two issues are on the same broad annual theme. These themes focus on theoretical meta-issues that are relevant to all fields within Hindu Studies, linking scholars in interdisciplinary dialogue. Themes published to date include: Hermeneutics and Interpretation, Aesthetics and the Arts, and Reason and Rationality. The disciplines represented in the Journal presently include History, Philology, Literature and the Arts, Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, Archaeology, and Religious Studies.
The Journal is edited by James Madaio, Gavin Flood, Jessica Frazier, and Rembert Lutjeharms.
Hindu Studies Book Series The OCHS Hindu Studies book series, has proven to be a successful association with Routledge, the publisher. The series publishes books covering areas of constructive Hindu theological, philosophical and ethical research which aims to bring Hindu traditions into dialogue with contemporary trends in scholarship and contemporary society. This includes annotated translations of important primary sources and studies in the history of the Hindu religious traditions. The series has attracted original, high quality, research level work on religion, culture and society of Hindus living in India and abroad.
The series editor is the centre's academic director, Professor Gavin Flood. The previous series editor was Professor Francis X. Clooney, SJ, of Harvard University, 2003–2005. Professor Clooney served as the centre's academic director from 2002 to 2004.
Archaeology and Religion in South Asia Series The centre, in association with Routledge, launched the Archeology and Religion in South Asia book series. This series publishes books that tackle questions of South Asian religion and society from the perspective of archaeological evidence. Underpinning the series is an approach that is motivated by close study of inscriptions, iconography, numismatics, and archaeological remains (particularly of shrines and diverse sacred sites). The Series Editor is Professor Himanshu Prabhu Ray, an emeritus professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and a former Shivdasani Visiting Fellow.
Online Lecture Library The OCHS has an Online Library of hundreds of MP3 recordings of lectures and seminars. Stretching from 2001 to the present and growing with each new term, the library ranges from introductory surveys of major Hindu themes, texts and traditions; single lectures on topics like Women in the Mahabharata or Poetry in the Vedas; discussions with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Scholars, and seminars on Hindi Cinema. The OCHS also puts out podcasts. Its weekly lecture podcast had over 15,000 subscribers (in 2007).
Research Research projects at OCHS fall under four general headings: 1. Hinduism and modernity 2. Classical Hinduism 3. Religious dialogue and interface 4. Historical perspectives on Hindu cultures.
Current research projects Bengali Vaishnavism in the Modern Period Project director: Ferdinando Sardella, Lucian Wong
This project undertakes an interdisciplinary survey of modern Bengali Vaishnavism from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century. Part of this work involves the mapping, collection, and translation of relevant literature from this period. The six main areas of research in regards to Bengali Vaishnavism are: 1) theology and philosophy, 2) history, 3) transnational currents and the development of modern institutions, 4) case studies and biography, 5) human rights, gender, family, and caste, and 6) theoretical and methodological issues. The project was launched with a workshop at Worcester College (2015) on which a volume was published.
Bhagavata Purana Project Project directors: Ravi M. Gupta, Kenneth R. Valpey
This research project assesses the Bhagavata Purana together with its context and consolidates past scholarship on the text. Its first phase saw the publication of a volume of research articles entitled Bhagavata: The Bhāgavata Purāṇa: Sacred Text and Living Tradition (2013) and the publication of an annotated and abridged translation of the Bhagavata Purana (2016), both by Columbia University Press. Phase two of the project was marked by a large international conference in Chennai with the University of Madras that brought together the network of scholars in the field. The BORI in its partnership with the OCHS has compiled a database of Bhagavata Purana manuscripts and secondary literature and is assessing a critical edition of the text.
Shakta Traditions Project Project directors: Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen, Gavin Flood
The Shakta Traditions project takes an interdisciplinary approach to investigating Goddess (Devi) worship among the Brahmanical community, in Tantric practices, and at the village level. The project aims to carve out space for the tradition within the Indian religious context by defining its theology, textual lineage, historical evolution, and its relationship to parallel traditions such as Shaivism. It has produced several international conferences and symposia, such as the international Shakta Traditions conference (2011), as well as numerous conference volumes published by the Oxford University Press and Routledge. In 2018, Bjarne Oleson established a study and research centre for the project in Kathmandu with a focus on manuscript collection and preservation and fieldwork. The Shakta Traditions project resulted from the memorandum of understanding between the OCHS and Aarhus University and is run as a collaboration between the two institutions.
The Goswami Project Project Managers: Kiyokazu Okita, Rembert Lutjeharms
This project investigates the formative period of Gaudiya Vaishnavism through research into the Sanskrit writings of the Goswamis, a group of early followers of Krishna Chaitanya whose works provided the theological underpinning of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. The core of the project involves preparing critical editions and translations of important Goswami texts. Other branches of the project involve study of early Gaudiya Vaishnavism's relation to contemporaneous Vaishnava schools, the theology of authors who inspired the Goswamis, how the Goswamis' teachings were developed by later Vaishnavas, and the material culture of the early Gaudiyas. The project was launched with a two-day workshop entitled 'The Building of Vrindavana' (2017).
Conferences The centre hosts interdisciplinary conferences and symposia. These gatherings have dealt with topics including the idea of Desire, Women in Hinduism, Philosophy, Archaeology, temple art and architecture, and Shakta Traditions.
The Shivdasani conferences synthesized the work being done in various projects. The first conference (2007) was held in Trinity College and was titled Archaeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia. It helped launch the centre's Archeology and Text Project. The proceedings of this conference were published by Oxford University Press, in 2009.Editor, Himanshu Prabha Ray, Archaeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia, Oxford University Press, India 2009 The second Shivdasani Conference (2009) – Thinking Inside the Box: The Concept of a Category in Indian Philosophy– took place at Somerville College. It explored linguistic, aesthetic, and ontological categories as they appear in Indian schools of philosophy, simultaneously bringing these ideas into dialogue with Western methods and launching the Categories in Indian Philosophy research project.