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Simon Brodbeck

Simon Brodbeck

Professor of Religious Studies

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

Email
BrodbeckSP@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 76486

Overview

Research interests

  • Early Sanskrit literature, especially the Sanskrit Mahabharata.

Research projects

  • Annotated translation of the Mahabharata's Dronaparvan.
  • Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
  • Text, Translation, and Interpretation of the Early Krishna Story: the Cardiff Harivamsha Project.
  • The History of Genealogy, the Genealogy of History: Family and the Narrative Construction of the Significant Past in Early South Asia.
  • Epic Constructions: Gender, Myth, and Society in the Mahabharata.

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

Articles

Book sections

Books

Monographs

Thesis

Research

Projects

Annotated Translation of the Mahabharata's Dronaparvan

I am involved in an international collaborative attempt to complete the English translation of the critically reconstituted Sanskrit Mahabharata that was begun in the late 1960s by J. A. B. van Buitenen. Since late 2020, I have been working on a lightly annotated translation of the Mahabharata's seventh book, the Dronaparvan. This book is 173 chapters long and narrates the events of the eleventh to fifteenth days of the eighteen-day war, during which the Kaurava army was led by Drona, the aged brahmin maestro.

Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Ramayana and Mahabharata

This open-ended project began in 2020 as a collaboration between myself, Laxshmi Greaves, and James Hegarty, with the aim of providing a platform for expanding and strengthening the dialogue between the disciplines within Indology and art history. An international online seminar series was held in the summer of 2021, and a volume of proceedings was published in 2022.

Text, Translation, and Interpretation of the Early Krishna Story: the Cardiff Harivamsha Project

This project ran in the Department of Religious and Theological Studies and was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council from October 2011 to September 2014. Under the mentorship of Will Johnson, I produced an English translation of the Sanskrit Harivamsha as critically reconstituted in 118 chapters by P. L. Vaidya in 1969. I investigated the text-critical method that was used to reconstitute the text: how suitable was it for the Harivamsha, and what is the status of the critically reconstituted version? I also attempted to reevaluate the relationship between the Harivamsha and the Mahabharata.

The History of Genealogy, the Genealogy of History: Family and the Narrative Construction of the Significant Past in Early South Asia

Pre-modern South Asia has consistently but erroneously been presented as a land without 'history'; but in the Genealogy and History project (September 2008 to August 2011), James Hegarty and I explored how, in South Asia, 'family history' or 'genealogical narrative' has been an enduring resource for the formation and transformation of understandings of the past. Our key research question was: What is the role of genealogical narrative in early South Asia?

Family history has been used -- and is still used -- as something of a speculative laboratory in which to debate ideas of how one might, could, or should live (and much else besides). This project explored the forms and functions of family histories in Sanskrit literary and inscriptional sources. By doing so, it shed light on the cultural history of early South Asia, and also explored the ways in which human social groups originate, maintain, and transform understandings of the significant past. Funded by the AHRC.

Epic Constructions: Gender, Myth, and Society in the Mahabharata

This project was led by myself and Brian Black in the Department of the Study of Religions at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, from April 2004 to March 2007. It explored how issues of gender are used by the Sanskrit Mahabharata in terms of its narrative and its philosophy. It explored in historical context the text's construction of various normative gender roles, and it explored certain specific themes in the Mahabharata in detail, such as the relation between patriliny, kingship, and sacrifice; the significance of female listeners; the gendering of the philosophical ideas of purusha and prakriti; the bi-gendered representational dimension of royalty; the representation of ambiguous genders; and the dialogical construction of gendered identities. Funded by the AHRC.

Biography

Qualifications

  • BA (Clare College, Cambridge, 1992).
  • PGCE (King's College, London, 1993).
  • MA, PhD (School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1995, 2002).

Employment

  • Lecturer, Department of Asian Studies (Sanskrit), Edinburgh University (2002--2004).
  • Research Assistant, Department of the Study of Religions, School of Oriental and African Studies, London (2004--2007).
  • Translator and Editor, Clay Sanskrit Library, Wolfson College, Oxford (2007--2008).
  • Lecturer (2008--2013), Serious Brain Power Fellow (2012--2017), Reader (2013--2023), then Professor (since 2023), Department of Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University.

Professional memberships

  • British Association for the Study of Religions
  • Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland