The Cluster of Excellence Cross-Cultural Philology takes a cross-cultural approach to the study of philological practices and cultural dynamics over a 5,000-year period. Here you can find an overview of the research projects carried out by the Institute of Indology and Tibetology within the Cluster.
“Inscribing Piety”: Patronage and Epigraphic Practices Across the Indian and Tibetan Cultural Worlds
The project investigates the cultural and religious significance of inscriptions across South Asia and the Tibetan cultural sphere, while also contributing to broader comparative studies of epigraphic traditions beyond Asia. The project combines philological, art historical, and digital approaches, and aims primarily to develop digital editions and cross-cultural studies. It focuses on three key regions and historical periods: 1. Early Historic Southern India; 2. Second-Millennium Tibet; 3. Early Modern Nepal.
The Indological subproject, “Monuments of Faith: Patronage and Institution in the Early Inscriptions of the Deccan”, supported by a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in Middle Indo-Aryan languages, early Brāhmī, and TEI/Epidoc encoding, will be dedicated to the integration, expansion, and standardization of earlier editorial initiatives through the creation of the “Early Inscriptions of the Deccan” digital corpus.
The Tibetological subproject, “Layers of Inscribed Meaning: Toward a Typology and Digital Corpus of Inscriptions in Tibetan Buddhist Sacred Art”, supported by a full-time postdoctoral researcher with expertise in Classical Tibetan, Tibetan art history, and epigraphy, aims to develop a classification and typological framework for Tibetan inscriptions, grounded in the first-ever comprehensive digital corpus of inscriptions on Tibetan objects of Buddhist art.
Prof. Dr. Vincent Tournier; Prof. Dr. Jörg Heimbel; Prof. Dr. Simon Cubelic; Dr. Yannick Laurent; Dr. des. Kelsey Martini; Fu Fan, M.A.
Medieval and Early Modern Courts as Hubs of Textual Migration
During the Nayaka and Maratha periods, the Tanjavur court in South India emerged as an important hub in the development of a new performative and literary culture, marked by unprecedented experimentations in theatre, dance and music forms. The project investigates the migration of texts and their literary motives—both secular and religious—across genres and media. Combining philological, literary, and social historical approaches, it aims to trace the processes of vernacularisation, hybridization, and transcreation that led to the canonization of new repertoires and shaped premodern Indian cultural politics. The doctoral candidate should have expertise in Sanskrit and at least one of the Indian languages relevant to the Tanjavur archives (Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Persian), or be willing to acquire additional language skills during the Ph.D. period.