Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 50 minutes ago
Keynote by Professor Gavin Flood
Abstract: This lecture is about the historical and semantic theorising of Śākta tradition. It focusses firstly on the relationship between Śāktism and Tantrism, presenting the historical thesis that originates with Von Glassenapp and is developed by Wernicke-Olesen that Śākta tradition
emerges within Tantrism but is not its origin. The lecture then goes on to examine how one Śākta tradition, the Krama, presents a cosmological non-dualism articulated in a Sanskritic, poetic register. The lecture ends with some thoughts about the meaning of these texts and this history.
Bio: Gavin is a Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion in the
Theology and Religion Faculty and academic director of the Oxford Centre
for Hindu Studies.
Gavin read Religious Studies and Social Anthropology at Lancaster Univer-
sity and taught at the universities of Wales (Lampeter) and Stirling before
coming to Oxford. He was elected to membership of the British Academy in
2014.
His research interests are in medieval Hindu texts (especially from the tra-
ditions of Shiva), comparative religion, and phenomenology. Developing
from the comparative interests of these books, he is currently working on a
project on holiness as well as developing closer textual work on a Sanskrit text called the Netratantra. He is general series editor of the Oxford History of Hinduism.
Keynote by Professor Gavin Flood
Abstract: This lecture is about the historical and semantic theorising of Śākta tradition. It focusses firstly on the relationship between Śāktism and Tantrism, presenting the historical thesis that originates with Von Glassenapp and is developed by Wernicke-Olesen that Śākta tradition
emerges within Tantrism but is not its origin. The lecture then goes on to examine how one Śākta tradition, the Krama, presents a cosmological non-dualism articulated in a Sanskritic, poetic register. The lecture ends with some thoughts about the meaning of these texts and this history.
Bio: Gavin is a Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion in the
Theology and Religion Faculty and academic director of the Oxford Centre
for Hindu Studies.
Gavin read Religious Studies and Social Anthropology at Lancaster Univer-
sity and taught at the universities of Wales (Lampeter) and Stirling before
coming to Oxford. He was elected to membership of the British Academy in
2014.
His research interests are in medieval Hindu texts (especially from the tra-
ditions of Shiva), comparative religion, and phenomenology. Developing
from the comparative interests of these books, he is currently working on a
project on holiness as well as developing closer textual work on a Sanskrit text called the Netratantra. He is general series editor of the Oxford History of Hinduism.
