Tradition and Innovation in the Languages and Cultures of Premodern South Asia

03/09 - 04/09

03. September 2026. - 04. September 2026.

09/03 - 09/04

2026. September 03. - 2026. September 04.

The registration for the conference is now open.
Registration for waged participants
Registration for student participants

Call for Papers

The international Indological conference “Tradition and Innovation in the Languages and Cultures of Premodern South Asia” invites papers exploring the role of consciously and unconsciously established canons and standards in the cultural and linguistic history of the South Asian subcontinent — with particular attention to India — as well as the phenomena and processes that drove their formation and shaped their preservation, transformation, and reception across time.

The conference will serve as the closing event of a four-year research project hosted by Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and funded by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH). The project (No. K 142535) has investigated processes of canonisation in premodern South Asia from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including philology, philosophy, linguistics, literary history, and religious studies.

The organisers welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

The formation, consolidation, preservation, and reception of literary, religious, philosophical, and cultural canons in premodern South Asia
The foundational texts of South Asian cultures and their canonisation
Archaisms and innovations in the cultural and linguistic history and prehistory of South Asia
Neologisms and conscious innovation in the literary and learned languages of South Asia (Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, classical Tamil)
The standardisation of language: grammatical traditions, prescriptivism, and the codification of literary norms
Commentary, sub-commentary, and the interpretation of authoritative texts
Quotation, allusion, and intertextuality as modes of engaging with canonical sources
Tradition and innovation in literary genres: epic, kāvya, drama, lyric, narrative, didactic literature
The aesthetics of originality versus adherence to convention; the concept of aucitya (propriety) and related notions
Scriptural authority and the canon in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions
Philosophical traditions and their self-positioning relative to textual authority
Hagiography, mythography, and the canonisation of figures and narratives