Steven M Vose
University of Colorado Denver, Religion, Faculty Member
- University of Colorado Denver, History, Faculty Memberadd
- South Asian Studies, Sanskrit language and literature, History of India, Pilgrimage, South Asian Religions, Jainism, and 26 morePrakrit Language and Literature, Gujarati Literature, Bhakti - Practices and Theologies, Pre-15th century devotionalism in So. Asian Religions, Literary Theory, Historiography, Alchemy, Magic, Tantra, EthnoNational Conflicts, communalism in India, Religious Studies, Ritual Theory, Religion in Nepal, Sanskritization Theory, Asian Studies, Manuscript Studies, Indian studies, Indian Philosophy, Indian Literature, Sanskrit, Prosopography, Havelis of Rajasthan, Legitimacy and Authority, Cultural Theory, and Medieval Indian Historyedit
- Historian of South Asian Religious Traditions: Jainism, Hinduism, Islam in western India and the Indian Oceanedit
Research Interests:
Some of the earliest narratives of meetings between leaders of an Indian community and their Muslim ruler appear in the Vividhatīrthakalpa (Chapters on Many Sacred Places) of the Jain monk Jinaprabhasūri (c. 1261-1333 CE). The text... more
Some of the earliest narratives of meetings between leaders of an Indian community and their Muslim ruler appear in the Vividhatīrthakalpa (Chapters on Many Sacred Places) of the Jain monk Jinaprabhasūri (c. 1261-1333 CE). The text depicts the monk's relationship with Sultan Muḥammad bin Tughluq (r. 1325-51) in the years 1328-33, which resulted in the sovereign issuing a number of edicts (farmāns) to protect Jains and Jain temples and which led to the return of a Jina icon (Pkt. paḍimā, Skt. pratimā) and the establishment of a Jain quarter in Delhi. Over the next two-and-a-half centuries, Jinaprabhasūri's story would be retold several times, with fifteenth-century narrators shifting his interlocutor to Fīrūz Shah Tughluq (r. 1351-88). In the process of making Jinaprabha an object of memory, Jain authors of both the monk's own and rival monastic orders (gacchas) depicted the sultans as benefactors of the Jain community. While these narratives were attempts to delineate the proper relationship between Jain monastic leaders and Muslim rulers, they also constituted a Jain memory of the Tughluq sultans that is often at odds with modern historical representations of them. Reading these narratives alongside other evidence of Jains' relations with the Tughluqs offers historians an alternative view of these figures and their relations with their Indian subjects, helping to de-centre modern historical narratives based on selective readings of Persian and Arabic sources and a privileging of Brahmanical or colonial viewpoints of the period. However, these narratives require historians to theorise this 'memory' to understand them productively as historical sources.
Research Interests:
The Jain monk Jinaprabhasūri (1261-1333) was one of the most prolific intellectuals of early fourteenth-century India. This article analyzes one citrakāvya ('image-poem') stotra (hymn) and two ṣaḍbhāṣā (six-language) stotras in light of... more
The Jain monk Jinaprabhasūri (1261-1333) was one of the most prolific intellectuals of early fourteenth-century India. This article analyzes one citrakāvya ('image-poem') stotra (hymn) and two ṣaḍbhāṣā (six-language) stotras in light of his other works on grammar and poetics (including his lost commentary on the Vidagdhamukhamaṇḍana). It argues that these genres of laghu-kāvya (short works of belles lettres) are best understood by examining their ideal sites of performance, the kavi-goṣṭhi or "assemly of poets." Examining the poems in light of the site of their performance helps us to understand the forms they take on, challenging notions that Jains were simply comfortable composing in Middle Indo-Aryan langauges and helping to shed light on why poets continued to compose citrakāvyas long after Ānandavardhana's (9th c.) dismissal of the genre as incapable of evoking rasa.
Research Interests: Jainism, Poetry, Sanskrit language and literature, Sanskrit, Prakrit Language and Literature, and 18 moreLiterary Aesthetics, Hindu Muslim relationships, Rasa and bhakti, Buddhist Literature, Delhi Sultanate, Indian Poetics, Rasa Shastra, Prakrit, Social History of Jain Community, Kavya, Rasa Theory, Anandavarddhan & Abhinavgupta), Dhvani and Rasa Theory, Intellectual History of India, Citrakavya, Jain Literature, Apabhramsha, and Stotrakavya
The Periyapurāṇam, a twelfth-century collection of hagiographies of Tamil Śaiva devotees, and the Tamil devotional poems of the Tēvāram, composed in the seventh century, both feature violence and invectives against Jains as a prominent... more
The Periyapurāṇam, a twelfth-century collection of hagiographies of Tamil Śaiva devotees, and the Tamil devotional poems of the Tēvāram, composed in the seventh century, both feature violence and invectives against Jains as a prominent theme. This paper examines the place of these themes in each work as part of an overall strategy of establishing Śaivism as the sole legitimate religion of Tamil-speaking South India. It further examines the historiography of South India that has been written using these sources to argue that there has been a problematic connection made between aesthetic claims of violence and actual historical events, as other historical, literary, and archaeological evidence points to a continuous, if diminishing, presence of Jains in Tamilnadu throughout this period and afterward.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Indian Philosophy, Pali literature & language, and 11 moreSouth Asian Religions, Advaita Vedanta, Interreligious Dialogue, India, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Indian religions, Indian Philosophy and Religion, Pali Canon, Classical Indian Philosophy, and Pali/Sanskrit Literature
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Far from the religion’s ancient roots in India, a younger generation in the U.S. looks to a spiritual leader who channels the wisdom of a renowned mystic through his global network of Jain study centers aimed at making the teachings more... more
Far from the religion’s ancient roots in India, a younger generation in the U.S. looks to a spiritual leader who channels the wisdom of a renowned mystic through his global network of Jain study centers aimed at making the teachings more ‘approachable’
Research Interests:
Workshop Description: The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were a period of major political and social transformation in South Asia, as the Delhi Sultanate consolidated and expanded its power with each successive dynasty. Beginning in... more
Workshop Description: The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were a period of major political and social transformation in South Asia, as the Delhi Sultanate consolidated and expanded its power with each successive dynasty. Beginning in the thirteenth century, Jain intellectuals and monastic leaders in western India began to produce narratives of kings, the Jain ministers who served them, and famous monks who led the community in the (more recent) past. These narratives, called prabandhas, were composed mainly in Sanskrit and Prakrit and gathered in collections (saṃgraha) or composed as a collection (kośa). Later, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, prabandhas composed in Sanskrit and vernacular languages chronicled and lauded the deeds of famous laymen and their families. Scholars have remarked that these narratives often appear to display a historical consciousness rarely seen in other genres of Sanskrit literature, making them enticing sources to use to write the social and religious history of the period, but they also caution about taking their "facts" at face value. This workshop will survey the breadth of the Jain prabandha literature in order to understand the nature of this genre and to consider the historiographical challenges and potential rewards of writing the history of late medieval India using these sources. Daily sessions will include reading passages from the texts in the original Sanskrit (and Prakrit), examining themes and topics of historical and literary interest, and discussing scholarship that uses these sources to understand the past. Themes we will investigate include Jain views of kingship, the proper relationship between monks and kings, the roles of monks and laymen as social and political leaders; Jain technologies of power (mantras, tantras, and alchemy), the re-imagining of sacred space and sacred geography in light of ongoing political transformations, and the relations between Jains and the Islamicate polities emerging in this period. We will also interrogate historiographical and literary concerns, such as the nature of the genre, comparisons with other genres, temporality in and of the texts, their social and political worlds, historiographical issues and topics, such as how to understand encounters between Jains and Muslims will also be debated with a survey of contemporary scholarship on the prabandhas.
Research Interests:
The First Annual Summer School on Languages of Jainism University of Toronto-Mississauga The First Annual Summer School on Languages of Jainism will take place in at the University of Toronto from July 29th to August 2nd, 2019. The... more
The First Annual Summer School on Languages of Jainism
University of Toronto-Mississauga
The First Annual Summer School on Languages of Jainism will take place in at the University of Toronto from July 29th to August 2nd, 2019. The First Summer School will focus on reading and contextualizing the prabandha literature, a rich archive of Jain histories, biographies, and stories composed mainly in Sanskrit and Prakrit. These narratives often display a historical consciousness rarely seen in other genres of Sanskrit literature, making them essential resources for the social and religious history of the period. This year’s Summer School will survey the breadth of themes, figures and places in the Jain prabandha literature and to consider the historiographical challenges and potential rewards of writing the history of late medieval India using these sources. Daily reading sessions will examine themes emerging in a number of sources, such as Jain views of kingship; the roles of monks and laymen as social and political leaders; Jain technologies of power of mantras, tantras, and alchemy; the re-imagining of sacred space and sacred geography; and the relations between Jains and Islamicate polities.
The workshop will be led by Steven M. Vose, the Bhagwan Mahavir Assistant Professor of Jain Studies and Director of the Jain Studies Program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, an expert in Jainism and a historian of medieval and early modern western India, whose research proposes new ways to use Jain prabandha literature as historical sources. Invited faculty include Shalin Jain and Sarah Pierce Taylor.
Each day will consist of three sessions: A morning reading session, an afternoon lecture or discussion, and an afternoon reading session. Readings will be mainly in Sanskrit with some in Prakrit, and an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit is encouraged. Each day will also have a lecture and discussion meant to familiarize the participant with the debates spurring the field.
There are no fees associated with attending the workshop itself, and room and board will be provided gratis to a limited number of initial participants. Travel stipends may also be available for a few student participants; however, it is recommended that participants apply to their home institutions for financial aid before asking for travel accommodation assistance.
For registration details and additional information or inquiries please contact: Luther Obrock luther.obrock@utoronto.ca
University of Toronto-Mississauga
The First Annual Summer School on Languages of Jainism will take place in at the University of Toronto from July 29th to August 2nd, 2019. The First Summer School will focus on reading and contextualizing the prabandha literature, a rich archive of Jain histories, biographies, and stories composed mainly in Sanskrit and Prakrit. These narratives often display a historical consciousness rarely seen in other genres of Sanskrit literature, making them essential resources for the social and religious history of the period. This year’s Summer School will survey the breadth of themes, figures and places in the Jain prabandha literature and to consider the historiographical challenges and potential rewards of writing the history of late medieval India using these sources. Daily reading sessions will examine themes emerging in a number of sources, such as Jain views of kingship; the roles of monks and laymen as social and political leaders; Jain technologies of power of mantras, tantras, and alchemy; the re-imagining of sacred space and sacred geography; and the relations between Jains and Islamicate polities.
The workshop will be led by Steven M. Vose, the Bhagwan Mahavir Assistant Professor of Jain Studies and Director of the Jain Studies Program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, an expert in Jainism and a historian of medieval and early modern western India, whose research proposes new ways to use Jain prabandha literature as historical sources. Invited faculty include Shalin Jain and Sarah Pierce Taylor.
Each day will consist of three sessions: A morning reading session, an afternoon lecture or discussion, and an afternoon reading session. Readings will be mainly in Sanskrit with some in Prakrit, and an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit is encouraged. Each day will also have a lecture and discussion meant to familiarize the participant with the debates spurring the field.
There are no fees associated with attending the workshop itself, and room and board will be provided gratis to a limited number of initial participants. Travel stipends may also be available for a few student participants; however, it is recommended that participants apply to their home institutions for financial aid before asking for travel accommodation assistance.
For registration details and additional information or inquiries please contact: Luther Obrock luther.obrock@utoronto.ca
Research Interests: Jainism, South Asian Studies, Sanskrit language and literature, Sanskrit, South Asian History, and 12 morePrakrit Language and Literature, South Asian Literature, Indian History, Islamicate South Asia, Prakrit, Indian and South Asian Historiography, Social History of Jain Community, Islamicate traditions in South Asia, Jain History, Jaina History and Contemporary Life In Western India, Pilgrimage in India, and Jain Pilgrimage
Summary of 22 papers on Jainism-related topics given at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, California
Research Interests:
Summaries of Jainism-related conference papers at the 2016 AAR and Annual Conference on South Asia hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Interests:
Summary of proceedings of Jainism panel at the AAS Conference April 2011 in Honolulu, Hawai'i