An online symposium to discuss the Greater Magadha hypothesis of Johannes Bronkhorst

May 6 - 9, 2021  ·  University of Alberta (online)

In his 2007 book Greater Magadha, Johannes Bronkhorst proposed a new theory for the historical formation of Indian culture in the mid-first millennium BCE. The theory proposed that a cultural and geographical area, Greater Magadha, was settled by an early wave of Indo-European speakers.  A second wave of Indo-European speakers, carriers of Vedic culture, subsequently encountered the Greater Magadhans to the east and the resultant cultural meeting gave rise to the main features known in later Indian history.  The Greater Magadha theory addresses many deep problems about the early formation of Indian culture that have long puzzled historians.  It has been widely accepted, but has also given rise to serious criticism.  This symposium will bring together some of the principal scholars who have engaged with the theory to discuss and retrospectively evaluate the theory just over a decade after it was proposed.

This symposium is hosted by Prof. Dominik Wujastyk at the Department of History, Classics and Religion at the University of Alberta and with the financial support of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

The symposium will be conducted online as a Zoom Webinar.

Full details of the symposium and registration are available at this website:

• http://eventleaf.com/GreaterMagadha