[INDOLOGY] Emerging Scholars in Jain Studies – Lecture by Itamar Ramot (University of Chicago)

[Ana Bajzelj]

Apologies for cross-posting.



Dear Colleagues,



We are happy to invite you to the next lecture in our “Emerging Scholars in
Jain Studies” virtual series co-organized by the Departments of Religious
Studies at UC Davis and UC Riverside. The lecture will be delivered by *Itamar
Ramot* (University of Chicago) on *Friday,* *September 29, 2023*, *9:00-10:20am
PDT*. You will find more information about the lecture and the speaker
below.



Register for the event here:



https://ucr.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0pf--pqD4oGNH9Wk15PT_Mz1cpR7OGARtG



Please note that you will need to sign into your Zoom account before
entering the Zoom room.



Best wishes,



Lynna Dhanani and Ana Bajzelj




*The Credibility of Stories: Judiciousness and Coherence in a Jaina
Narrative from 10th-11th century*


>From the early centuries of the common era, Jaina authors composed their
own versions of stories that appear in sources such as the *Rāmāyaṇa*,
*Mahābhārata*, and *purāṇa*s. These authors self-consciously present
themselves as correcting preceding narratives that they do not accept as
credible. But what makes one version more credible than another? And how
should a reader adjudicate between the two? In this talk, Itamar Ramot
argues that the two earliest available retellings of a Jaina narrative
called the *Dharmaparīkṣā*— in Apabhraṃśa (988) and Sanskrit (1014)—address
these questions through a complex set of arguments. First, these retellings
establish coherence as a fundamental criterion for considering the
credibility of a story. Second, by repeatedly pointing out the
incoherencies of stories, they train their readers on how to be judicious
with regard to the credibility of stories that they encounter. As such, the
*Dharmaparīkṣā*s offer a reflection on the motivation of premodern South
Asian authors to retell already-existing narratives and on the reading
practices they expect of their reader.

*Itamar Ramot* is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of South Asian
Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is interested
in the intersection of literature and religion and specifically in the
application of literature to questions of religious authority. In his
research, he explores the mechanism by which medieval Jain thinkers used
narrative literature to establish criteria about which stories should be
considered credible and to train their readers on how to adjudicate the
authority of the stories they encounter.
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