📌 MANTRAS BETWEEN LANGUAGE, RITUAL AND MATERIALITY EurAsia Summer Academy: Vienna Summer School on the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia 📅 July 6–11, 2026 📍 Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna ⌛ Registration will close on 15 May, 2026

🗓️ UPCOMING EVENT: We are excited to share with you information regarding an upcoming talk by Dr. Lucy May Constantini, MANTRAMS Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Vienna.

🗓️ CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE: 1 MARCH 2026 We are excited to share with you the Call for Papers for the workshop ‘Sonic Efficacy: Mantras, Music, and Placemaking in Global Southern Asia’ to take place at the National University of Singapore (03-04 September 2026).

As we near the end of the year, we at MANTRAMS would like to share some of the events from the past months.

🧾Prema Goet is a doctoral researcher for MANTRAMS Task Force 3 at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies — University of Vienna and a research fellow for The Śākta Traditions Research Programme at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, in the UK.

🧾Devyani Bhosale joins MANTRAMS as a predoctoral researcher, bringing an interdisciplinary background in South Asian Studies with a focus on anthropology. She holds a Master's in Development Environment Societies and History in South Asia from Heidelberg University, Germany.

🧾Edda Sofie Schwarzkopf is the Digital Humanities and Data Management Officer (DHDMO) of MANTRAMS.

🧾Lea Stiller supports the MANTRAMS team in Vienna with project administration and management, helping to coordinate research activities, events, and deliverables. She plays a key role in organizing workshops, managing budgets, preparing reports, and assisting with outreach efforts.

🧾Lucy May Constantini is postdoctoral researcher on Task Force 3 of the MANTRAMS Project, the task force based at the University of Vienna which deals with materiality and mantras.

🧾Mukul Menon joined the MANTRAMS project in 2025 as a PhD researcher for Task Force 2 at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Tübingen. His broad research interests lie at the intersections of South Asian music and auditory practices, religion, and the formation of publics and identities.

🤝🏽Meet the Mantrams Project Members 🧾I Gde Agus Darma Putra is a researcher and lecturer at Hindu Indonesia University (Bali, Indonesia), and currently a doctoral candidate at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) under the MANTRAMS project.

🙌The MANTRAMS Inaugural Workshop and Team Training came to a fruitful conclusion this past weekend.

The MANTRAMS Inaugural Workshop and Team Training commences tomorrow at the University of Tübingen, Germany, with over sixty participants attending the three day event.

Meet Dr. Andrea Acri 🧾 Lead Researcher, MANTRAMS Project. 📍 Task Force 1: Roots and Branches: Emergence and Circulation of Mantras Dr. Acri is an Associate Professor in Tantric Studies at the Religious Studies section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), PSL University in Paris.

🗓️ONLINE EVENT Looking For Things That Are Not Visible: The Inner Body in Motion in a South Indian Martial Art by Lucy May Constantini. Presented by The SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies Date: Monday, 19th May 2025 Time: 19:00hr–20:30hr London time

rāma rāmeti rāmeti rame rāme manorame | sahasranāma tattulyaṃ rāmanāma varānane || (Śiva said to Pārvatī:) “Beautiful-faced one, I delight in the handsome Rāma [in uttering] ‘Rāma, Rāma, Rāma.’ Rāma’s name equals the one thousand names (of Viṣṇu).”

Meet Dr. Gudrun Bühnemann 🧾 Senior Researcher, MANTRAMS Project 📍 Task Force 3: The Materiality of Mantras Dr. Bühnemann is Professor of Sanskrit and Indic Religions at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies and Indology from the University of Vienna.

Among the Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala, Dr. Naras Ravindran Nambudiri of Narayanamangalattu Mana is the foremost living expert and reciter of the Rig Veda (“Knowledge of Verse”).

My name is Finn Moore Gerety. I’m a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford and Principal Investigator for MANTRAMS Task Force One: “Roots and Branches: the Emergence and Circulation of Mantras.”

“The danka of the madmen resounds, it speaks the name of Harichand The flag of victory flies high in the wave of harinām sound, what was once under Death’s jurisdiction has now lost control. Death told his messenger: The madmen have taken over!

Meet Dr. Carola Lorea Principal Investigator, MANTRAMS Project Head of Task Force 2: Sonic Efficacy

Meet Dr. Borayin Larios 🧾 Principal Investigator, MANTRAMS Project 📍 Head of Task Force 3: The Materiality of Mantras

Vaiṣṇava Renunciate Performing Nyāsa at Maha Kumbh 2025 🔥 This rare footage, filmed by MANTRAMS Project doctoral researcher Prema Goet during his fieldwork in India (Feb 2025), captures a Vaiṣṇava renunciant of the Rāmānandī order practicing nyāsa—the ritual of inscribing mantras onto the body.

Special Project launch event (hybrid) at the The SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies with the three Principal Investigators of the ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project, Carola Lorea, Finnian Gerety, and Borayin Larios. Register for (free) tickets… 1/