Faculty Travel & Research - David Buchta

Classics faculty member, David Buchta, spent his summer involved in research and travel. In July, he traveled to Vancouver for the 17th tri-annual World Sanskrit Conference. There, he co-organized and presented on a special double-panel examining the single opening verse of the canonical Bhāgavata Purāṇa and its receptive history, including commentaries from the 13th to the 19th centuries CE. August took David to Singapore, where he participated in a workshop on Indian Philosophy, specifically addressing the question of whether postulation (arthāpatti) is epistemologically distinct from inference (anumāna). This workshop is part of an international collaborative effort that will culminate in an edited volume to be published by Bloomsbury, to which David will contribute an annotated translation of part of Cidānanda Paṇḍita’s 14th century CE Nītitattvāvirbhāva. In Singapore, David came to appreciate how much knowing Sanskrit helped in understanding the Malay language.

 


Dave drinking out of a fresh coconut in Singapore

David drinking out of a fresh coconut in Singapore

 


The oldest Hindu temple in Singapore

The oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, a Devī (Goddess) temple from 1827.


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David with Dr. Birndaban Bihari Das, a panelist on a session that I chaired at the conference in Vancover.

 


A danger sign with "Bahaya," a Sanskrit loanword, in Malay

A danger sign with "Bahaya," a Sanskrit loanword, in Malay.