Deepak Sarma in London

[Guest guest]

The Department of the Study of Religions at the School of Oriental and

African Studies, University of London, presents a talk by

Deepak Sarma

 

On Thursday 14th October, 1-3pm

Rm B202 (2nd floor, Brunei Gallery, SOAS)

 

Title of talk:

How secret is a secret society?

Madhva Vedanta, the mleccha scholar,

and current methodological challenges

 

(Deepak Sarma is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Case Western

Reserve University, USA, as well as a Research Professor of the Purnaprajna

Samshodhana Mandiram, Bangalore, India. He was born into the Madhva

tradition and is a practising Madhva. His publications include An

Introduction to Madhva Vedanta (Ashgate 2003) and Epistemologies and the

Limitations of Philosophical Inquiry: Doctrine in Madhva Vedanta

(RoutledgeCurzon 2004) (about which he will speak today), as well as

articles on the Madhva tradition in the Journal of Indian Philosophy and the

Journal of the American Academy of Religion.)

 

(The Madhva School of Vedanta is founded on such a strict insider

epistemology that outsiders are not permitted to access basic doctrines. Are

the Madhva defences impenetrable or are there ways that outsiders can become

virtuosos in Madhva doctrine and speak for/about the tradition? What are the

implications of such defences for the study of esoteric religions? This

talk, and the book on which it is based, are part of an ongoing controversy

in religious studies pertaining to issues of voice and authority and the

growing concerns of some in the Hindu community.)