Patrick Olivelle
The Gawande Lecture Series in Indian Religion and Philosophy and the Friends of India Endowment present “Voices of Silence: Deconstructing Ancient Indian Cultural History,” a lecture by Dr. Patrick Olivelle, on Thursday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Bentley Hall 110.
This event is free and open to the public.
Olivelle is a philologist and scholar of Sanskrit Literature whose work has focused on asceticism, renunciation and the dharma. He has been Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin since 1991.
Abstract: This talk looks at institutions such as caste and even dharma that have been long presented as central features of ancient Indian cultural history and asks the simple question: Are these statements of modern scholarship true? Or have we been lulled into accepting things because, through constant repetition, they have become familiar? The talk looks at silences, that is, ancient sources that should talk about these central institutions but that do not.
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