Dear colleagues and friends,

I write with a heavy heart to share the news of the passing of Elliot M. Stern, last Thursday. Elliot dedicated much of his life to Maṇḍana Miśra, since his PhD up to the publication of the critical edition (with commentary and subcommentaries) of the Vidhiviveka in 2023. Still, we continued to meet every week to read it and he was constantly improving on some manuscript reading or rethinking a difficult passage.

 He has been a constant inspiration for me and I will miss him, his generosity, his incredibly encyclopaedic knowledge of Sanskrit philosophy, and even his auto-irony. I have also been using him as a paradigmatic case for my students whenever they wondered whether a university position was the only way to continue working in the field: "Who made the greatest contribution (by far) to the study of Maṇḍana? Not a professor, but Elliot Stern, who was working on him out of love and dedication and only on his free time".

Best wishes,

elisa (freschi)