As you are aware IASS gives awards to young scholars for contribution to their field of specialization and furtherance of  Sanskrit research. This year's awards have been judged and decided and it gives me pleasure to announce the winners of the awards.

                        

The DK Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis on Sanskrit has been awarded to Dr Eric Gurevitch for his thesis submitted to the University of Chicago, entitled, 'Everyday Sciences in Southwest India'. 

The thesis examined a close-knit group of scholars in eleventh-century Karnataka writing on practical topics including recipes, bureaucratic mathematical problems, the weather, animal husbandry and hydrology. This dissertation explicates this turn to vernacular sciences and its epistemic consequences in South Asia. In this mixed intellectual environment, authors writing in Sanskrit and Kannada disputed and redefined the meaning of scholarship, debating the value of erudition and experience.

The adjudicators agreed that this outstanding thesis broke new ground in understanding of the relationship between Sanskrit and vernacular languages and their respective roles in the creation of knowledge systems in premodern India. The judges praised the originality of the author's multi-layered analysis.

The award consists of books to the value of US$1000 generously sponsored by Shri Ramesh K. Mittal of D.K. Agencies (P) Ltd., New Delhi.

The IASS Honorary Research Fellowship

The IASS Honorary Research Fellowship for 2024 has been awarded to Dr Pranav Prakash, of Christ Church, University of Oxford, for a project entitled,  'Maithili Chapbooks in a Sanskritized World: The History of Unorthodox Printing in Colonial India.'  The Honorarium valued at €1000 will enable Dr Prakash to continue his research in India.

Our warmest congratulations to both our winners.

More information on both awards is available on the IASS website:

https://www.sanskritassociation.org/

Dipti S.Tripathi

McComas Taylor, Professor of Sanskrit
College of Asia and Pacific, Australian National University
Secretary-General, International Assoc. of Sanskrit Studies