Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to announce the commencement of a new three-year research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) that is to be jointly held by Cardiff University and the University of Edinburgh. It is entitled:

The Story of Story in Early South Asia: Character and Genre across Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Narrative Traditions

It involves myself and Dr. Naomi Appleton and will focus on sources in Sanskrit, Pali and, to a lesser extent, the Prakrits. Its aim is to explore what shared literary characters can tell us about the religious history of early South Asia. It will culminate in a jointly-authored book.

We have created a project blog (and twitter feed) not just because we are craven digital opportunists, but also because dialogue (such as one finds on this very list) is important to us and because we are painfully aware of the scale of the challenge we have set ourselves. We have already posted translations and comments on both specific papers and more general issues in Indology and we plan to post more. We will also post source material and other useful bits and bobs as the project proceeds. The twitter feed will be used to keep interested parties up to date with events and publications associated with the project.

Please do subscribe to the blog, but, more than this, please offer comments and guidance!

The blog may be found at http://storyofstoryinsouthasia.wordpress.com/. Twitter details are given on the blog.

With All Best Wishes,

James Hegarty

Cardiff University