We cordially welcome Jaya Yadav and Raja Pathak, PhD students at Benaras Hindu University in Varanasi as exchange students at the South Asian Institute from 1st of June until 31st of August. They are part of the exchange program New Passage to India: Cultures of Learning in Germany and India funded by DAAD.

Raja Pathak is pursuing his PhD at the Department of Jyotish, Benaras Hindu University on the topic Programming and Software Development for Planetary Calculation. 

Jaya Yadav is a PhD student at the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy from the Faculty of Social Science (Benaras Hindu University). Her PhD topic’s title is Third Gender in Ancient India: A Historical Inquiry.

We cordially welcome Prof. Patanjali Mishra, a Professor at the Department of Vedic Studies at the Benaras Hindu University (Varanasi, India). Prof. Mishra is a visiting scholar at the Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia for the Summer Semester 2019. He will teach recitation techniques in Vedic and Classical Sanskrit from 17th to 28th of June.

Prof. Mishra belongs to a family of traditional practitioners of Śrauta- and Smārta rituals and also is an expert for Classical Sanskrit theatre.

We cordially invite you to the inauguration of the Center for Asian Studies and Transcultural Studies (CATS) on June 25, 2019. CATS brings together the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS) and four large Asian Studies institutions at Heidelberg University as well as their libraries: the Institute of Anthropology (IfE), the South Asia Institute (SAI) and the Centre for East Asian Studies (ZO).

The detailed program is available here, further information about CATS here:

Detailed semester program plan

Invitation to the opening

Opening poster

CATS website

10 am

The Scholar’s Choice. Heidelberg’s Asian Scholars and their favorite objects – an exhibition with the opening of the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies

Introduction: Margareta Pavaloi and Axel Michaels
Völkerkundemuseum (Anthropological Museum)

12 pm

Asian snacks: CATS geht durch den Magen

CATS Greens

1 pm

Ritual for the first entry of a new house (Gṛhapraveśa)

Patanjali Mishra (Benares Hindu University)
CATS Library, Building 4131

2 pm

Asia Research in Europe: Prospects and Challenges

Christiane Brosius (HCTS, IfE, SAI) and Joachim Kurtz (HCTS, ZO) in dialogue with Ravinder Kaur (Copenhagen), Tiziana Lipello (Venice), Chunrong Liu (Shanghai/Copenhagen), Philippe Peycam (Leiden), Dhruv Raina (Delhi) et al.
CATS 440.02.12

3 pm

CATS Art (Kunst am Bau): Friedemann von Stockhausen in dialogue with Monica Juneja (HCTS, SAI, Institute for European Art History)

CATS Library, Building 4131

3:30 pm

Haiku Performance

Moderation: Hans Harder (SAI)
CATS Greens

5 pm -
7 pm

Official Opening

(by special invitation) with Ai Weiwei and Sheba Chhacchi
(Moderation: Perry Link and Christiane Brosius)
Music from the Kathmandu band TRIPLETS and Bun-Ching Lam from the chamber opera Wenji: Eighteen Songs of the Nomad Flute
CATS 010.01.05, life-streamed and broadcast to adjacent rooms

7:30pm -
11:30pm

CATS Opening Party

CATS Greens

7:30 pm

Students meet Ai Weiwei

CATS 440.02.12