1. Overcoming Adversity in Ancient Indian Text (Dr Bihani Sarkar)

How we deal with challenges and tragedy is reflected and informed in the stories and art of our society, this is not always the same in different cultures. What can we learn from the way ancient cultures portray challenges in life?

Dr Bihani Sarkar, is a scholar of Sanskrit and ancient Indian culture, language, history and society. She is an associate faculty member of the Oriental Institute at Oxford University, and member of Wolfson College. Bihani has a doctorate in Sanskrit from Oxford University, where she focused on the cult of the warrior goddess Durga in medieval Indian kingship. This research was the basis for her first book. She has subsequently held postdoctoral fellowships at Hamburg University, was a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University, and has been a Teaching Fellow at Leeds University. Bihani has just published her second book, titled “Classical Sanskrit Tragedy: the concept of suffering and grief in medieval India”. This book focuses on the way tragedy is dealt with in ancient Indian text, which is what we dig deeper into this episode. We will see what we can learn from these ancient texts and the way that they portrayed people overcoming mental and emotional obstacles.

Links:

https://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/people/bihani-sarkar

Book: Heroic Shāktism - The Cult of Durgā in Ancient Indian Kingship

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/heroic-shktism-9780197266106?cc=gb&lang=en&

Book: Classical Sanskrit Tragedy - The Concept of Suffering and Pathos in Medieval India

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/classical-sanskrit-tragedy-9781788311113/