We are happy to invite you to the first lecture series of our project Embodiments of Truths: The Body and Ascetic Practices in Ancient Indian Traditions, a collaboration between the Department of Indology at the University of Tübingen, the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires, and the Centro de Estudios de Asia y África at El Colegio de México.

November 10, 6:00-7:30pm CET | Claire Maes (University of Tübingen): “The Emaciated Body: Contested Ideologies of Asceticism in Early India”

November 17, 6:00-7:30pm CET | Roberto García (El Colegio de México): “Playing with fire: Bodily powers and the domestication of other bodies in some early Buddhist narratives”

December 1, 6:00-7:30pm CET | Piotr Balcerowicz (University of Warsaw): “The Cosmic Man (loka puruṣa) as the Body of Human and the Body of the Cosmos in Jainism”

December 8, 6:00-7:30pm CET | Gabriel Martino (University of Buenos Aires): “Imagining power. Representations of yoga in Mahābhārata XII, 289"

Embodiment of Truths is an international collaborative research project that explores how ancient Indian religious traditions conceptualize the body’s role in the pursuit of truth. It examines normative views of the body, ideals of embodiment, and ascetic disciplines prescribed for attaining the ultimate reality. In doing so, it seeks to illuminate the diverse ways these traditions understand truth, not merely as a doctrinal concept preserved in texts, but especially as a lived experience to be actualized through the body.

You will find more information about the first lecture and speaker in attachment.

***This lecture series is supported by the Tübingen Research Takeoff (TRT) program and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments. ***