South Asian Studies

We offer two programmes of graduate studies, a one-year M.Phil. and a research Ph.D. In both cases we usually expect candidates to hold a high Second or a First class BA degree.

Funding opportunities may be available. Please click on the link here for further information.

M.Phil. in Sanskrit and South Asian Studies

The M.Phil. in Sanskrit and South Asian Studies is a one-year course designed to promote an understanding of the region’s rich and complex cultural, religious and intellectual histories through the extensive corpus of textual sources in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit. For detailed information about this course, pleaase look at the M.Phil. section.

Ph.D. in South Asian Studies

Our Ph.D. is a research degree obtained solely by submission of a doctoral thesis which should not exceed 80,000 words exclusive of footnotes and bibliography but subject to an overall word limit of 100,000 words exclusive of bibliography. We encourage students to discuss their research interests with us before making an application. For detailed information about the research areas covered by our teaching officers, please look at our Teaching Staff section.

News & Events
“A Critical Edition of the Kāśikāvṛtti” - Project Launch

January, 2011 saw the official launch of the project "A Critical Edition of the Kāśikāvṛtti", which will be carried out by Dr Eivind Kahrs (Project leader) and Dr Vincenzo Vergiani in collaboration with Prof. Malhar Kulkarni, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, and Prof. Saroja Bhate, Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit, University of Pune.

The Project is funded by a British Academy grant in the frame of the International Partnerships Scheme with South Asia. It aims, over three years, at preparing a critical edition of the whole first book of this 7th-century work attributed to Jayāditya and Vāmana, which is the oldest complete commentary on the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini, while investigating its role in the history of Sanskrit grammatical thought.

International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS)

Thursday, 23rd & Friday, 24th September, 2010

A two-day conference designed to bring together graduate students working with primary sources in Indology so that they can present, discuss and publish their research.

For more information, please visit: iigrs.byethost17.com

Sanskrit Life-Worlds: Antiquity to Early Modernity

Tuesday, 11th May, 2010 from 10:00 - 16:00
CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge

A colloquium with Professor Sheldon Pollock (William B Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, University of Columbia, US).

The Great Chain of Academic Being

A View from the Bottom: Reflections on the Non-Western, the Non-Modern, and the Philological

A lecture by Professor Sheldon Pollock (William B Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, University of Columbia, US)

Thursday, 13th May, 2010 from 17:00 - 19:00
CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge.

Ideas of India in Britain 1857-1947

Friday, 14th and Saturday, 15th May, 2010
CRASSH, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge

A workshop aiming to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of ideas of India in Britain between 1857 and 1947.