(apologies for cross-posting)
Dear colleagues,
Please join us on Tuesday 17 November from 5pm (CET) for the Fourth Ācārya Mahāprajña Lecture in Jain Studies. Dr. Heleen De Jonckheere (UGent) will discuss narrative adaptation in/and Jain polemical texts and present her recently published volume 'The Examination
of Religion' (BRILL 2026).
The speaker
Dr Heleen De Jonckheere is a scholar of Jain literature and Jain history. Her main research focus has been on the conceptualisation and practice of translation and adaptation in the Jain context, and on the religious implications of translation. Her current
project looks at the Apabhramsha literature of the Jain author Puṣpadanta (10th c.). Further interests include Jain narrative literature, Jain manuscript culture, religious plurality in historical India as well as vernacularisation in religious literature.
Heleen received her PhD from Ghent University in 2020 and continued her work at the University of Chicago (US), the University of Toronto (Canada), and SOAS (UK) before returning to Ghent University as a FWO senior postdoctoral researcher in 2025.
The book
The Examination of Religion (Dharmaparīkṣā): A Jain Tradition of Narrative Adaptations was published with open access by BRILL in the GONDA Indological Series in 2026.
Abstract
Repetition, reconfiguration, or adaptation form key characteristics of the Indian literary traditions. Jain literature exemplifies this vividly, especially through its rich narrative tradition. This book studies one such narrative, known as the Dharmaparīkṣā
('Examination of Religion'), which has intrigued audiences for its ridiculing critique of Brahmanical beliefs and authority.
This book is the first to examine six versions of the story in classical and vernacular languages and from different periods together as a tradition of adaptations. Revealing the adaptive practices Jain authors applied as literary and socio-historical contexts
evolved, the book offers a diachronic perspective on Jain polemics, and on the conceptualization of adaptation and translation in South Asia.
With kind regards,
Eva
Professor of Indian Languages and Cultures
Program director of Oriental Languages and Cultures
Chair of the Ghent Center for South Asian Studies research group
Blandijnberg 2
9000 Ghent
Belgium
Tel (mobile): + 32 476 419890
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