Current efforts in computational historical linguistics are predominantly concerned
with phylogenetic inference. Methods for ancestral state reconstruction have only
been applied sporadically. In contrast to phylogenetic algorithms, automatic reconstruction methods presuppose phylogenetic information in order to explain what has
evolved when…[Read more]

Book Review The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations, Jacqueline I. Stone co-edited with Bryan J. Cuevas

This book could be seen as a novel method of tracing the history of a scripture. Jacob P. Dalton does this by “tracing the vicissitudes of a single ritual system—that of the Gathering of Intentions Sutra (Dgongs pa ’dus pa’i mdo)—from its ninth-century origins to the present day” (xv). This tantra is referred to as the “root tantra” and i…[Read more]

Religious leaders often come together for a statement of their respective beliefs seeking a false satisfaction that they are working for world peace by a disparate series of talks meant to only emphasize differences among faith traditions. This book is a welcome departure from such meaningless exercises and hopes to create a tradition of…[Read more]

The argument against free will could as well have been eternal. In this short but incisive and analytical book, Alfred R Mele, a professor of philosophy, successfully and clearly critiques the rationale against free will put forward by psychologists and neuroscientists.

A book designed for children with attractive illustrations, this volume brings out the spirit of India through the recounting of an incident that happened in India; where a boy—not wealthy of resources—returns a wallet he found and cannot even think of accepting a reward for his good act. Awarded the ‘Mom’s Choice Best Educational Picture Book’,…[Read more]

Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahayana Daniel Boucher Book Review Prabuddha Bharata August 2014

The Mahabharata / Srimad Bhagavata – in the Poet’s Own Words by Pandit A M Srinivasachariar Book Review Prabuddha Bharata June 2010

When it comes to Japanese literary heritage, why and how are we able to access it? The shape of what is preserved and available is driven by and in turn dictates the shape of our canon(s). Yet we often do not think of the labor and social networks behind the reprinting and digitizing that allows us to access literature in the first place, whether…[Read more]

A commentary of Yinming zhenglimen lun 因明正理門論 (A Chinese translation of Nyāya-mukha) written by Gesshu 月珠 (1795-1856), a scholar priest of Shin Buddhism.

The purpose of this course is to introduce graduate students to the tools, methods, and history of sinology. Sinology refers to the study of China as performed in a philological manner. Philology refers to the historical study of language and literature in its fullest context. It is inherently interdisciplinary. It draws on the fields of…[Read more]

This presentation explains my undergrad/grad seminar “East Asian DH” (EALC111/511) at University of Pennsylvania in Spring 2018. I focus on the survey format of the seminar, as dictated by the challenge of trying to reach students working on many aspects of the un-discipline of East Asian studies, which encompasses a large region, at least three…[Read more]

Syllabus for my course 3UU3, Buddhism in East Asia planned for Winter term 2019

This is the version of the syllabus for Asian Meditation Traditions at the end of the first term in which I offered it–Fall 2018.

Draft version of syllabus for graduate seminar on Nirvana Sutra