Prof. Dr. Simon Cubelic

Since 10/2025 — Professor (W2) of Modern Indology, Department of Asian Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

06/2024–09/2025 — Academic Staff Member, CATS Library, Heidelberg University. Deputy Head, South Asia Section; Subject Librarian

04/2014–06/2024 — Research Associate, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Research Unit “Religious and Legal Historical Sources of Pre-Modern Nepal”

10/2020–06/2021 — Research Associate, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University. Project “The Anthropology of Inscriptions”

04/2018–12/2018 — Research Associate, Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”, Heidelberg University

12/2016–12/2019 — Research Associate, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. Translation Project “The Mulukī Ain of 1854: Nepal’s First Legal Code”

04/2012–03/2016 — Doctoral Researcher, Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”, Heidelberg University. Project A14 “Transcultural Legal Flows in 18th- and 19th-century South Asia”

Since 07/2024 — Associate Researcher, Research Unit “Religious and Legal Historical Sources of Pre-Modern Nepal”, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

03/2022–12/2023 — Project Member, “ Archiving and Contextualizing a Private Collection of Nepalese Manuscripts”, Heidelberg University (Research Initiative “Transforming Cultural Heritage”)

2023 — Master of Arts, Library and Information Science, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2017 — PhD, Classical Indology, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (summa cum laude). Dissertation: „Die koloniale Restauration des Dharmaśāstra. Das Obligationenrecht in Sarvoru Śarmans Vivādasārārṇava“

2010 — Magister Artium, Classical Indology and Political Science of South Asia, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

2018 — Walter-Witzenmann Prize, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

2018 — DAAD Congress Travel Grant, 17th World Sanskrit Conference, Vancouver

09/2011–03/2014 — Doctoral Fellowship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation)

03/2005–03/2010 — Graduate Fellowship, Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation)

10/2025 — Panel “Embedded Ownership: Tracing Indic Property Notions Across History”, European Conference for South Asian Studies (ECSAS), Heidelberg University

05/2024 — Workshop “‘A Yam between Two Rocks’: Transcultural Histories of Nepal’s Relations with India, China, and Tibet”, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

09/2022 — [with Nina Mirnig and Astrid Zotter] Panel “Inscriptions as Social Artefacts: Revisiting South Asian Epigraphical Cultures”, 34th Deutscher Orientalistentag, Freie Universität Berlin

10/2015 — Workshop “Studying Documents in Pre-modern South Asia: Problems and Perspectives”, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

10–11/2025 — [with Manik Bajracharya, Christiane Brosius, Rajan Khatiwoda and Monalisa Maharjan] Exhibition “Buṅgadyaḥ: The Rain-Making God” CATS Library, Heidelberg University. In conjunction with the 28th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS)

Since 01/2018 — Member, Editorial Board, “Documenta Nepalica – Book Series” (Heidelberg University Publishing)

01/2016–08/2023 — Member, Editorial Board, Interdisziplinäre Zeitschrift für Südasienforschung (FID4SA)

Peer reviewer for Contributions to Indian Sociology; Palgrave Macmillan

Digital Humanities in German-speaking Countries (DHd) · European Association for South Asian Studies (EASAS) · German Association for Asian Studies (DGA) · German Oriental Society (DMG)

2021 — „Die koloniale Restauration des Dharmaśāstra. Das Obligationenrecht in Sarvoru Śarmans Vivādasārārṇava. Edition, kommentierte Übersetzung und Studie der Kapitel ṛṇādānanirūpaṇa und upanidhyādinirūpaṇa“. Diss., Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.11588/heidok.00029448

2026 (in press) — [with Manik Bajracharya, Christiane Brosius and Rajan Khatiwoda]: When a God Moves the City: Placemaking in the Buṅgadyaḥ Procession in Nepal. Documenta Nepalica 9. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.

2021 — [with Rajan Khatiwoda and Axel Michaels]: The Mulukī Ain of 1854: Nepal’s First Legal Code. Documenta Nepalica 2. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.769

2018 — [with Axel Michaels and Astrid Zotter]: Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Documenta Nepalica 1. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.331.454

2026 (in press) — [with Manik Bajracharya, Christiane Brosius and Rajan Khatiwoda]: “Introduction”. In When a God Moves the City, ed. by Manik Bajracharya, Christiane Brosius, Simon Cubelic and Rajan Khatiwoda. Documenta Nepalica 9. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.

2026 (in press) — [with Rajan Khatiwoda]: “Inscriptions in Motion: The Epigraphical Culture of the Buṅgadyaḥ Procession”. In When a God Moves the City, ed. by Manik Bajracharya, Christiane Brosius, Simon Cubelic and Rajan Khatiwoda. Documenta Nepalica 9. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.

2026 (in press) — [with Rajan Khatiwoda and Axel Michaels]: “The Mulukī Ain of 1854”. In Global Secularity: A Source Book, vol. 6: South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia, ed. by Anindita Chakrabarti, Farhat Hasan and Sushmita Nath. Berlin: de Gruyter.

2024 — “The Code of Tribute: Law and Political Economy in the Ain of 1854”. In Provincialising Dharma. Studies on Legal Issues in the Himalaya, ed. by Florinda De Simini, Domenico Francavilla and Axel Michaels, 141–168. Torino: Comitato Corpus Iuris Sanscriticum. https://www.asiainstitutetorino.it/cis/CIS_10.pdf

2022 — [with Rajan Khatiwoda and Axel Michaels]: “Edition and Translation of Selected Articles from the Ain of 1854”. In Slavery and Unfree Labour in Nepal, ed. by Manik Bajracharya, 183–274. Documenta Nepalica 3. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1003.c15883

2019 — “Sarvoru Śarman’s Vivādasārārṇava (1789) and the Formation of Sanskritic Legal Knowledge in Early Colonial Bengal”. In Reinterpreting Indology and Indian History, ed. by Radha Madhav Bharadwaj, 102–19. Delhi: Pratibha Prakashan.

2018 — “Governing Economic Life in Rāṇā Nepal: The Tender Process for the Gambling License at the Market Square of Asan in 1902”. In Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India, ed. by Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels and Astrid Zotter, 293–327. Documenta Nepalica 1. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.331.c4138

2018 — [with Axel Michaels and Astrid Zotter]: “Studying Documents of South Asia: An Introduction”. In Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India, ed. by Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels and Astrid Zotter, 1–33. Documenta Nepalica 1. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.331.c4127

2017 — [with Rajan Khatiwoda]: “Nepalese Monarchy in an Age of Codification: Kingship, Patriotism, and Legality in the Nepalese Code of 1854”. In Transnational Histories of the ‘Royal Nation’, ed. by Milinda Banerjee, Charlotte Backerra and Cathleen Sarti, 67–86. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50523-7_4

2017 — [with Manik Bajracharya and Rajan Khatiwoda]: “Reporting across Borders in a Time of Turmoil: Eight Reports from Lokaraṃa Upādhyāya from the Years 1837–1844”. In Abhilekha 34: 138–172.

2016 — [with Manik Bajracharya and Rajan Khatiwoda]: “Reporting across Borders: Four Reports of Lokaraṃa Upādhyāya from the Years 1831–1837”. In Abhilekha 33: 120–133.

2013 — “The Theology of Debt in an Early Colonial Dharmaśāstra Text: The Case of Sarvoru Śarman’s Vivādasārārṇava”. In Hieron: Studies in Comparative Religion, vol. 2 (XI.), ed. by Dušan Deák, 79–105. Bratislava: Department of Comparative Religious Studies.

(Co-)Editor of TEI-XML editions of Nepalese documents, charters and inscriptions in Nepali and Sanskrit from the 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily covering legal and economic history, foreign relations and the Buṅgadyaḥ procession. Documenta Nepalica Digital Editions