Dear Colleagues,

Please find attached a call for application related to a PhD and/or post-doctoral positions that is advertised in the context of the ERC project SAW "Mathematical Sciences in the Ancient World", dealing with the history of mathematics in astral sciences in India.

I am pasting bellow the gist of the scholarship call, more details are given in the attached file.

I would be grateful if you could forward this call to whoever might be interested in it, and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Best
Agathe Keller, with the SAW group

The great majority of mathematical texts known from the ancient and medieval Indian subcontinent are chapters in theoretical treatises on astral sciences written in Sanskrit. Are these mathematics different from the mathematics found elsewhere in the Indian subcontinent and not related to astral science? What was the relation between the chapters on mathematics and the computations and algorithms expounded in other chapters of the same treatise? How were these mathematics related to mathematical tools used in the wider realm of the astral corpus (in horoscopy, astrology...). For example a research proposal could aim at tracing and characterizing the use of similar algorithms, like the Rule of Three, the Pythagorean theorem, rules to derive and interpolate Sines, algorithms to solve indeterminate problems, or others, in different parts of a treatise, or else across different texts by a same author. Were there mathematical practices that were standard in astral science and not found in mathematical chapters and vice-versa?

More generally, any research project that would help understand the specificities of mathematical activities adhering in one way or another to astral sciences, by contrast to other mathematical practices attested to in the Indian subcontinent, and/or involve sources in Indian languages that are not Sanskrit would be welcomed.

Applicants are expected to mention specific sources and topics on the basis of which they intend to explore these questions.

The deadline for applications is: June 21, 2013 (for the position to be taken up as of September 1, 2013 or as early as possible thereafter). Short-listed candidates will be informed at the beginning of July 2013 and phone or Skype interviews are expected to take place during the first week of July 2013.

The scholarship is granted for one year. Pending positive evaluation, the doctoral scholarship is renewable for two additional years and the post-doctoral scholarship is renewable for one additional year. The monthly stipend amounts to about 1400 euros for the doctoral scholarship and to about 2000 euros for the post-doctoral scholarship (amounts to be updated at the contract signing). It includes social security benefits and retirement provisions. In the case of a doctoral scholarship, the recipient, under the supervision of Agathe Keller, will have to achieve a degree of the academic institution the SAW project is affiliated to.

Applications should be sent to the SAW Project Director Karine Chemla by email only: chemla@univ-paris-diderot.fr. It is recommended to request an email acknowledgement of receipt.

Information on the SAW project is available online at http://www.sphere.univ-paris-diderot.fr/?-ERC- Project-SAW-&lang=en