Benjamin J. Fleming - Research
(for a more detailed version see: http://www.benjaminfleming.com)
PUBLICATIONS
- i. Peer-Reviewed Publications
"Making Land Sacred: Inscriptional Evidence for Buddhist Kings and Brahmin Priests in Medieval Bengal." In: Numen: International Review for the History of Religion, forthcoming.
"Liṅga and Yoni." In: Hiltebeitel, A (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online: Hinduism. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2012.
"Śiva," In: Hiltebeitel, A (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online: Hinduism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195399318-0088.
"From Tirupati to Brooklyn: Interpreting Hindu Votive Hair-Offerings," in Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 40(2) June, 2011 [the first in a pair of articles on "Hindu Hair and Jewish Halakha," as prefaced by a co-authored introduction with Annette Yoshiko Reed]. [link from Sage]
"New copperplate grant of Śrīcandra (no. 8) from Bangladesh," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 73.2 (2010): 223–44. [PDF from BSOAS]
"Mapping Sacred Geography in Medieval India: The Case of the 12 Jyotirliṅgas," International Journal of Hindu Studies 13.1 (2009): 51–81 [PDF from SpringerLink] [errata]
"The Form and Formlessness of Śiva: The Liṅga in Indian Art, Mythology, and Pilgrimage," Religion Compass 3 (2009), doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00141.x [Online at Blackwell]
"A Temporary Affair: Images and Methods of Possessing the Divine in Hinduism," Journal of Religion and Culture 13 (1999): 69-82.
ii. Edited Volume iii. Invited papers, reviews and review essay(ed., with Richard Mann) History and Material Culture in Asian Religions. London: Routledge Publishers, forthcoming.
"Ellora Cave 16: Speculations and Connections to the Cult of the Twelve Jyotirliṅgas," in Pia Brancaccio (Ed.), Living Rock: Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Cave Temples in Western Deccan (Marg Publications), forthcoming.
"Nandi and Śiva," in Journal of Vaiṣṇava Studies, forthcoming.
Review Essay on Petteri Loskikallio and Mislav Jezic, eds., Parallels and Comparisons: Proceedings of the Fourth Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas, September 2005, in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, forthcoming.
Reprint of "New copperplate grant of Śrīcandra (no. 8) from Bangladesh" [BSOAS 73.2 (2010): 234-8], in The Bangladesh Reader, Chapter 2: Early Histories, (eds.) Meghna Guhathakurta and Willem van Schendel, Durham: Duke University Press, forthcoming 2012.
Review of Upinder Singh (ed.), Rethinking Early Medieval India: A Reader (OUP India: 2011), Journal of Hindu Studies, forthcoming.[JHS]
Review Essay on Dominic Goodall and André Padoux, eds., Mélange tantriques à la mémoire de Hélène Brunner/Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner (Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry/École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 2007), In "Reviews XIII" [ed.] Victor Mair, Sino-Platonic Papers 208, February 2011. [SPP]
Review of Finbarr B. Flood Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval "Hindu-Muslim" Encounter (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), forthcoming in Journal of Asian Studies. Journal of Asian Studies 70.3 (2011): 865-6. [JAS]
Review of Jason Hawkes and Akira Shimada, eds., Buddhist Stupas in South Asia: Recent Archaeological, Art-Historical, and Historical Perspectives (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009), Journal of Asian Studies 69.4 (2010): 1276-7. [JAS]
Review of Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt, eds., Review of: Gandharan Buddhism: Archaeology, Art, Texts (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006), Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 37.3-4 (2008). [pre-print]
iv. In progress
Light in Place: Pilgrimage and Story in Medieval Śaivism. [Book project based on dissertation and postdoctoral research.]
INVITED LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS
"Reading the Liṅga as 'Relic': Śaivism, the Buddhist Distinction, and Other Auspicious Signs of Death in South Asian Religions," Matter of Contention: Relics and Other Sacred Objects at the Crossroads of Religious Traditions, hosted by the Department of Religious Studies, University Texas, Austin, April 23-24, 2012. [abstract]
"Illusions, Fantasies, and the Chaos of History: Fire and Light Imagery in Ancient Hinduism," Ancient Studies Group, State University New York College at Oneanta, March 29, 2010.
"Phallus Or Fire? Rethinking Liṅga Worship in Ancient Hinduism," New Scholars Lecture Series, University of Regina, Canada, January 15, 2010. [abstract/poster]
"A New Copper Plate Inscription of Śrīcandra: Contracts and Curses in Medieval India," Oriental Club of Philadelphia, February 14, 2008.
"Mapping Sacred Geography: The Rise of Pan-Indian Pilgrimage Routes in Medieval India," Religious Studies Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, November 15, 2007.
- OTHER RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Cataloger of Sanskrit manuscripts for the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. 2011-present. [Catalogue manuscripts and annotating records (colophons, dates, authors, scribes, etc.) of about 3,000 Sanskrit manuscripts for Penn in Hand, online catalogue. Digital images of manuscripts are being made available online to the public along with the catalogue data].
Moderator, Indo-Eurasian Research List, with Steve Farmer, Lars Martin Fosse, and Michael Witzel. 2007 to present. This list currently has more than 1000 research members from over thirty fields. It focuses on premodern studies globally.
Researcher, The Digital Sanskrit Library Project, 2009 to 2010. Work entailed examining manuscripts of the Mahābhārata and Bhāgavata Purāṇa from the University of Pennsylvania's collection and annotating records for an online manuscript catalogue, centered in the Department of Classics at Brown University.
President, Oriental Club of Philadelphia, 2008-2010. This club was established in 1888 and includes a membership of scholars of South and East Asia, Near East, and Central Asia from a variety of scholarly backgrounds with focus on non-Western linguistic, religious, philosophical, and textual traditions.
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