Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson
Professor
Anschrift
Büro
Sprechzeiten
Sprechzeiten: n.V.
Kontakt
Schwerpunkte
- Tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna Buddhism
- Classical Sanskrit poetry
- Classical Indian philosophy
- Purāṇic literature
- Manuscript studies
Area (Arbeitsgebiet)
tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna Buddhism; classical Sanskrit poetry; classical Indian philosophy; Purāṇic literature; and manuscript studies
Curriculum vitae
April 2006- | Professor of Classical Indology, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Abteilung für Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, Universität Hamburg. |
2006 | Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford. |
2005 | Awarded a Sabbatical Fellowship by the American Philosophical Society. |
Sept. 2002-March 2006 | Assistant Professor, Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania. |
2001 | Elected to a Visiting Fellowship at the International Institute for Buddhist Studies, Tokyo. |
June 2000-Aug. 2002 | 'Assistent' (roughly equivalent to non-tenure-track assistant professor), Institut für Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, Universitä Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. |
Nov. 1995-May 2000 | Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Sanskrit, Oriental Institute, Oxford University. |
1995 | PhD (cum laude) Leiden University. Dissertation: Materials for the study of the Vaiśeṣika system. |
1994 | Elected to the Michael Coulson Research Fellowship in Indology at Wolfson College, Oxford University. |
March 1991-March 1995 | ‘oio’ (roughly equivalent to research assistant), funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Institute of Indian Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. Major Honours, Awards and Fellowships |
1990 | MA (cum laude) University of Groningen. Thesis on the theory of perception (pratyakṣa) in early Vaiśeṣika. |
Harunaga Isaacson has been supervising PhD students officially for more than ten years, and inofficially for more than twenty. PhD students officially supervised by him include two who are now holders of prestigious chairs for Sanskrit (Prof. Yuko Yokochi, Kyoto University, and Prof. Peter Bisschop, Leiden University, both awarded the PhD degree by the University of Groningen and jointly supervised by Prof. Hans Bakker, University of Groningen, and himself). The most recent PhD theses supervised by him to be successfully defended, both at Universität Hamburg, in 2011, were those by Dolores Minakakis (on Upaniṣads of the Non-Dualism of Love: Govardhana’s Āryāsaptaśatī) and by Camillo Formigatti (on Sanskrit Annotated Manuscripts from Northern India and Nepal).
Academic Employment and Functions (Ämter und Funktionen)
2011- | Elected ordentliches Mitglied (full member) of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg. |
2011- | Member of the Vorstand (Board of Directors) of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures = Sonderforschungsbereich 950, Manuskriptkulturen in Asien, Afrika und Europa, responsible for Project Area C (Manuscript collections and collective manuscripts), as well as leader of two sub-projects. |
2010 | Elected member of the Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO), Rome, Italy. |
2007- | Director of the Centre of Tantric Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Abteilung für Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, Universität Hamburg. |
2006- | General Director of the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (long-term project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). |
2006- | Director of the Nepal Research Centre. Member of the Editorial Board of the Groningen Oriental Studies. |
Member of the Advisory Board of Indo-Iranian Journal | |
Co-director, together with Dominic Goodall, of the Franco-German project ‘Early Tantra: Discovering the Interrelationships and Common Ritual Syntax of the Śaiva, Buddhist, Vaiṣṇava and Saura traditions’, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Agence National de Recherche, from 2008-2011. | |
Member of the Steering Committee of the European Consortium for Asian Field-Studies (ECAF). | |
Member of the Governing Committee of the indology mailing list for scholars of Indology since 2001 (archives). | |
Reader for Princeton University Press, the Journal of the American Oriental Society, the Journal of Indian Philosophy, and others. | |
President of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, 2003‒2004. | |
External member of the Alexander Csoma de Kðrös Centre for Oriental Studies, Sapientia, Hungarian University of Transylvania. |
Research Interests (Forschungsinteressen)
- Tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna Buddhism
- Classical Sanskrit poetry
- Classical Indian philosophy
- Purāṇic literature
- Manuscript studies
Editor (Herausgabetätigkeit)
Chief Editor, together with Dramdul and Helmut Krasser, of Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Chief Editor, together with Prof. Michael Friedrich and Prof. Jörg Quenzer, of the Encyclopedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa (forthcoming from de Gruyter).
Editor, together with Prof. Michael Friedrich and Prof. Jörg Quenzer, of Studies in Manuscript Cultures (published by de Gruyter; first volume released in 2011).
Editor (and founder), Tantric Studies (new international peer-reviewed journal, first issue published in 2008).
Editor (and founder), Newsletter of the NGMCP.
Co-Editor, with Prof. Francesco Sferra, of Manuscripta Buddhica, a new subseries of the Serie Orientale Roma (first volume appeared in 2009).
Editor of the Publications of the Nepal Research Centre.
Editor of the Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, from vol. 13 (published December 2009) onward.
Contributor to the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, ‘A Hindu Tantric Dictionary’, a project of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien).
Publications (Publikationen)
Books and Monographs (Bücher und Monographien)
Forthcoming b Abhayākaragupta’s Abhayapaddhati on the Buddhakapālatantra, Chapters 6-8: Critical edition with English translation, introduction, and notes. Accepted for publication in the series Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Forthcoming a The Sekanirdeśa of Maitreyanātha (Advayavajra) With the Sekanirdeśapañjikā of Rāmapāla. Critical Edition of the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts, English translation, and Facsimiles. (With Francesco Sferra, with an appendix by Klaus- Dieter Mathes). Accepted for publication in Manuscripta Buddhica, a subseries of the Serie Orientale Roma, forthcoming in 2012.
2008 A Study of the Position of Mantrayāna in Late Indian Buddhism. Report of Grantin- Aid for Scientific Research (C). Faculty of Humanities, Mie University. (With Taiken Kyuma and Ryugen Tanemura).
2004 The Skandapurāṇa. Volume IIA. Adhyāyas 26-31.14: The Vārāṇasī Cycle. Critical Edition with an Introduction, English Synopsis & Philological and Historical Commentary. Groningen: Egbert Forsten. (With H. T. Bakker.)
2003 The Raghupañcikā of Vallabhadeva, being the earliest commentary on the Raghuvaṃśa of Kālidāsa. Critical edition with introduction and notes. Volume I. Groningen: Egbert Forsten. Groningen Oriental Studies 17. (With Dominic Goodall.)
1998 The Skandapurāṇa. Volume I. Adhyāyas 1–25. Critically Edited with Prolegomena and English Synopsis. Groningen: Egbert Forsten. Supplement to Groningen Oriental Studies. (with R. C. Adriaensen and H. T. Bakker).
Articles (Aufsätze)
Forthcoming a On the shared “Ritual Syntax” of the Early Tantric Traditions. (With Dominic Goodall.) In: Tantric Studies, 2012.
2011b Altindische Manuskriptkultur/Sanskrit Manuscript Culture. In: Manuscript Cultures 4, pp. 101-116.
2011a Tantric Traditions. In: Jessic Frazier (ed.): The Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies. London/New York: Continuum, 2011. pp. 122-137 (notes on pp. 189-191; bibliography, combined for the whole volume, on pp. 361-400). (With Dominic Goodall.)
2010b Observations on the development of the ritual of initiation (abhiṣeka) in the higher Buddhist tantric systems. In: Astrid Zotter & Christof Zotter (eds.): Hindu and Buddhist Initiations in India and Nepal. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,
2010. Ethno-Indology. Heidelberg Series in South Asian Rituals. pp. 261- 279.
2010a Of critical editions and manuscript reproductions: Remarks apropos of a critical edition of Pramāṇaviniścaya Chapters 1 and 2. In: Manuscript Cultures 2, pp. 14-21.
2009 A collection of Hevajrasādhanas and related works in Sanskrit. In: Ernst Steinkellner, Duan Qing, Helmut Krasser (eds.): Sanskrit manuscripts in China. Proceedings of a panel at the 2008 Beijing Seminar on Tibetan Studies, October 13 to 17. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House, 2009. pp. 89-136.
2008 Himalayan Encounter: The Teaching Lineage of the Marmopadeśa (Studies in the Vanaratna Codex 1). In: Manuscript Cultures 1 (Autumn/Winter 2008), pp. 2‒6.
2007b First Yoga: A commentary on the ādiyoga section of Ratnākaraśānti’s Bhramahara (Studies in Ratnākaraśānti’s tantric works IV). In: B. Kellner, H. Krasser, H. Lasic, M.T. Much, H. Tauscher (eds.): Pramāṇakīrtiḥ. Papers dedicated to Ernst Steinkellner on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Part 1. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 2007. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 70.1. pp. 285‒314.
2007a Workshop on the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā: The Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra? (With Dominic Goodall.) In: Newsletter of the NGMCP 3 (Jan.‒Febr. 2007), pp. 4‒6.
2002b Ratnākaraśānti's Bhramaharanāma Hevajrasādhana: Critical Edition (Studies in Ratnākaraśānti's tantric works III). In: Journal of the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies vol. 5 (2002), pp. 151(80)-176(55).
2002a Ratnākaraśānti's Hevajrasahajasadyoga (Studies in Ratnākaraśānti's tantric works I). In: Raffaele Torella (ed.): Le Parole e i Marmi: studi in onore di Raniero Gnoli nel suo 70° compleanno. Roma: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente
2001 [appeared 2002]. Serie Orientale Roma XCII. pp. 457-487.
2001b The opening verses of Ratnākaraśānti's Muktāvalī (Studies in Ratnākaraśānti's tantric works II). In: Ryutaro Tsuchida and Albrecht Wezler (eds.): Harānandalaharī: Volume in Honour of Professor Minoru Hara on his Seventieth Birthday. Reinbek 2000 [appeared 2001]. pp. 121-134.
2001a Citations from the Ratnāvalī and Bodhicittavivaraṇa in the Abhayapaddhati. In: Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 22 (1999) [appeared in 2001], pp. 51-54.
1998 Tantric Buddhism in India (from c. A.D. 800 to c. A.D. 1200). In: Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Band II. Hamburg. pp. 23-49. [Internal publication of Hamburg University. A slightly revised version is now online.]
1995 Notes on the manuscript transmission of the Vaiśeṣikasūtra and its earliest commentaries. In: Asiatische Studien / Etudes Asiatiques 48.2 (1994) [appeared in 1995], pp. 749-779.
1994b Towards a critical edition of the Skandapurāṇa. (With R. C. Adriaensen and Hans Bakker.) In: Indo-Iranian Journal 37 (1994), pp. 325-331.
1994a Yogic perception (yogipratyakṣa) in early Vaiśeṣika. In: Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 18 (1993) [appeared in 1994], pp. 139-160.
1993 The Ramtek Inscriptions II: the Vākāṭaka inscription in the Kevala-Narasiṃha Temple. (With Hans Bakker.) In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies vol.lvi.1 (1993), pp. 46-74.
Reviews and other Publications (Revies und andere Publikationen)
Reviews, Review Articles, and Book Announcements (Reviews, Review Artikel und Buchankündigungen)
Forthcoming Review of Masahide Mori (ed.): Vajrāvalī of Abhayākaragupta: Edition of Sanskrit and Tibetan Versions. Tring, UK: The Institute of Buddhist Studies,
2009. Buddhica Britannica Series Continua XI. 2 vols. In Indo-Iranian Journal, 2012.
2007c Book announcement: Lehrschrift über die zwanzig Präverbien im Sanskrit. Kritische Ausgabe der Viṃśatyupasargavṛtti und der tibetischen übersetzung Nye bar bsgyur ba nyi shu pa’i ’grel pa. (Editionen von Texten der Cāndra- Schule, Band I. Dragomir Dimitrov (nach Vorarbeiten von Thomas Oberlies). Marburg: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 2007. Indica et Tibetica 49. In: Newsletter of the NGMCP 4 (May‒June 2007), pp. 19‒20.
2007b Book announcement: Early Buddhist Theories of Action and Result: A Study of Karmaphalasambandha. Candrakīrti’s Prasannapadā, Verses 17.1-20. Ulrich Timme Kragh. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2006. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, 64. In: Newsletter of the NGMCP 4 (May‒June 2007), pp. 18‒19.
2007a Book announcement: Early Śaivism and the Skandapurāṇa: Sects and Centres. By Peter C. Bisschop. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2006. Groningen Oriental Studies, 21. In: Newsletter of the NGMCP 3 (Jan.‒Febr. 2007), p. 25.
2006 Book announcement: The Sekoddeśaṭīkā by Nāropā (Paramārthasaṃgraha). Critical Edition of the Sanskrit Text by Francesco Sferra. Critical Edition of the Tibetan Translation by Stefania Merzagora. Roma 2006. In: Newsletter of the NGMCP 1 (July 2006), pp. 10‒11.
2004 Review of Gudrun Bühnemann (with contributions by H. Brunner, M.W. Meister, A. Padoux, M. Rastelli and J. Torzsok): Maṇḍalas and Yantras in the Hindu Traditions. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003. Brill’s Indological Library vol. 18. In: Nagoya Studies in Indian Culture and Buddhism: Saṃbhāṣā 24 (2004), pp. 153‒158.
2002 Review of Birgit Kellner: Nichts bleibt Nichts. Die Buddhistische Zurückweisung von Kumārilas Abhāvapramāṇa. übersetzung und Interpretation von Śāntarakṣitas Tattvasaṅgraha vv. 1647-1690 mit Kamalaśīla’s Tattvasaṅgrahapañjikā, sowie Ansätze und Arbeitshypothesen zur Geschichte Negativer Erkenntnis in der Indischen Philosophie. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 1997. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde Heft 39. In: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 152 (2002), pp. 442‒446.
1997 Review of Zhongxin Jiang and Toru Tomabechi (eds.): The Pañcakramaṭippa- ṇī of Muniśrībhadra. Introduction and Romanized Sanskrit Text. Bern etc.: Peter Lang, 1996. Schweizer Asiatische Studien/Etudes asiatiques suisses: Monographie Vol. 23. In: Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asiatiques 51.2 (1997), 678‒682.
1993 Review of Deba Brata SenSharma: The Philosophy of Sādhanā, with Special Reference to the Trika Philosophy of Kashmir. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1990. In: Numen vol. 40 (1993), 208‒211.
1992 Review of Roque Mesquita: Yāmunācāryas Philosophie der Erkenntnis. Eine Studie zu seiner Saṃvitsiddhi. Wien: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990. In: Numen vol. 39 (1992), pp. 271‒273.
Others (Andere Publikationen)
Forthcoming Articles on a number of technical terms of tantric literature, for volume III of the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa (Dictionary of Technical Terms from Hindu Tantric Literature, forthcoming in 2012 from the Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
2011 Preface. (With Alexis Sanderson). In: Luo Hong: The Buddhakapālatantra: Chapters 9 to 14. Critically edited and translated. Beijing/Hamburg: China Tibetology Publishing House, 2010 [appeared in 2011]. Invited Lectures, Participations in Academic Conferences etc. (selected, only from 2005)
Media (Medien)
Febr. 2009 Interview for Deutschlandradio Kultur, special program on Śiva and Śivarātri.