Due to technical difficulties, the database is currently only accessible from the Heidelberg University network or via eduroam. We are trying to restore functionality as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.

Documenta Nepalica

The project's digital infrastructure is called "Documenta Nepalica" and consists of two interconnected parts: a catalog database and an edition platform. The catalog database contains metadata on published and unpublished documents. The edition platform provides digital, XML-based editions with translations or detailed summaries of selected documents, which are then gradually published in DWork with a DOI. The topics covered by the edited documents span various areas of public, political, and religious life.

The catalog database was initially designed to record handwritten documents that had been preserved on microfilm by the NGMPP (or its successor, the NGMCP) but had not yet been explicitly cataloged. However, document collections from other archives or private collections can be easily integrated. In addition to the material recorded by the NGMPP, other collections are also being added to the catalog database, including (as of 02/2021):

• Documents from Tsum (Nadine Plachta Collection)
• Inscriptions recorded by the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project
• Documents from the Walter Rindfleisch Collection
• Documents belonging to the family of Laksmidas Pradhan
• Inscriptions from Sankhu (Balgopal Shrestha Collection)

When the database was launched (May 2016), it already contained around 19,000 entries and had grown to approximately 60,000 by the end of 2020. The number continues to rise, with the goal of having more than 100,000 entries by the end of the project in 2028, covering all relevant NGMPP documents as well as the collections integrated later. The metadata contained in the catalog can be enriched with bibliographic information on earlier editions, translations, and studies of the corresponding documents. Records of documents that have been processed in more detail in the project are linked to the respective editions. 

At the time of the NGMPP filming, a handwritten catalog card was created for each document. Two types of cards were used. The information on these cards varies in quality. For documentary purposes, however, all information is recorded by the team in Patan (currently Rabi Acharya, Pabitra Bajracharya, and Yogesh Budhathoki) and then undergoes further input control in Heidelberg. To minimize input errors, templates are used for dates and similar information during data entry. Only obvious, gross language errors (English) are corrected. However, typing or reading errors cannot be ruled out when entering the heterogeneous material.

In addition, many catalog cards have empty input fields, which is due to the two digitally merged but different card types (with different fields).

The "Technical terms" field has been added to the input mask to record technical terms. In addition, a short title is created for each data record, containing information on the document type, author, addressee, subject, and year of issue (era as in the original). Each document is assigned a unique identification number based on the NGMPP number, which is used analogously for further collections.

Documents selected by project staff for their individual research are transcribed and edited in a minimally invasive manner. The data is encoded in accordance with the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) standard for text editions and can be viewed on the edition platform, see "All Editions." A digital facsimile is provided for each edition alongside the text. In addition, the edition contains information on the short title, the name of the editor(s), a summary of the content, a translation (sometimes replaced by a summary of the content), annotations, and a commentary.

Various options are available for displaying the editions (diplomatic; with word separation; annotated edition; XML structure tree, Devanagari script or transliteration in Latin script, zoom-in function).

Documents related to the same topic are compiled into bundles, which form the basis for research work on the subject matter.

Documents on Brahmin scholars (research topic: pandits), scribes (research topic: scribe elites), and politicians (research topic: Bhīmasena Thāpā) are informative for understanding the development of elite cultures.

The development of public order and state administration can be traced in documents on economic life (research topic: economic life), slavery and forced labor (research topic: slavery, forced labor, and emancipation in the 19th/20th centuries), the administration of social and ethnic groups (research topic: social groups), but also the use of elephants (research topic: Elephants).

Other documents concern legal history and practice (research topic : legal practice), land rights (research topic: land transfer), and widow burning (research topic: Satī).

Insights into diplomacy and foreign policy are provided by letters from envoys (research topic: foreign correspondence) and documents on trade between Nepal and Tibet (research topic: Nepal-Tibet trade).

Specific locations and regions for which document series have already been edited include the border region with Tibet (Tsum, Kutang, and Nubri) (research topic : Himalayan border region) and the city of Sankhu (research topic: Sankhu).

Other focal points of religious life in Nepal include important temples and deities (research topics: Paśupatinātha, Bungadyo, royal goddesses), ascetics (research topic: ascetics), religious specialists (research topics: priests, music, and musicians), and festivals (research topic: Dasai).

Click here for all research topics.

Published editions with DOI

In cooperation with Heidelberg University Library, the editions are being published successively and made permanently available, see "Published editions with DOI."

publishing principles

The editions are based on a diplomatic transcription with minimal editorial intervention. The editorial principles and documentation of the TEI annotations used can be viewed in detail here.

Complex search functions enable both data sets to be searched, so that the constantly growing inventory can always be reorganized according to content criteria and specifically indexed. In addition to the simple search, advanced search functions are available in which search parameters can be combined with each other. The search can be performed here.

Catalog entries and search results can be added as bookmarks to your personal "my list," which can be exported in txt format.

head of research

Prof. Axel Michaels

Employees (Heidelberg)

• Dr. Manik Bajracharya(Project Coordinator, Deputy Project Manager)
• Dr. Christof Zotter ( Head of Editorial Program)
• Julia Shrestha, M.A.
• Dr. Ramhari Timalsina
• Marija Grujovska, M.A.

auxiliary personnel

• Bastian Jantke, M.A.
• Pradip Ghimire, M.A.

Employee (Patan, Nepal)

• Dr. Monalisa Maharjan (local administration)
• Rabi Acharya
• Yogesh Budhathoki

Freelancers

• PD Dr. Oliver Hellwig (programming)
• Philip Pierce (English proofreader)
• Rajendra Shakya (guest editor)

Associate scientists

• Professor Simon Cubelic
• Dr. Rajan Khatiwoda
• Dr. Sabine Tittel (Digital Humanities, Semantic Web)
• Dr. Astrid Zotter

Project support committee

• Prof. Dr. Jörg Gengnagel (Würzburg)
• Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren-Oesch (Basel)
• Prof. Dr. Oskar von Hinüber (Freiburg)
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein (Heidelberg)
• Prof. Dr. Lothar Ledderose (Heidelberg)
• Prof. Barbara Mittler (Heidelberg)
• Prof. Dr. Alexander von Rospatt (Berkeley)
• Prof. Dr. Bernd Schneidmüller (Heidelberg), Chairman

Publications

Documenta Nepalica – Book Series

The research center publishes the "Documenta Nepalica – Book Series" in open access (CC BY-SA 4.0). The volumes are also available as print-on-demand.

Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India, Heidelberg : Heidelberg University Publishing, 2018 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Volume 1), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.331.454.

This anthology contains contributions to the conference "Studying Documents in Premodern South Asia and Beyond: Problems and Perspectives," which took place in Heidelberg in October 2015. Experts from various disciplines—Indology, Tibetology, history, ethnology, religious studies, and digital humanities—examine topics such as the diplomatics and typology of documents, their significance in relation to other texts and text genres, archiving and editing methods, and their 'social life,' i.e., their role in social, religious, and political constellations, the actors and practices involved in their production and use, and the norms and institutions they embody and constitute," 10.17885/heiup.331.454.

Rajan Khatiwoda, Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels (eds.), The Mulukī Ain of 1854. Nepal's First Legal Code, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2021 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Volume 2), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.769.

The Mulukī Ain of 1854, Nepal's first code of law, is one of the most important works in modern Nepalese legal history. From state structure and the judicial system to homicide and property offenses to caste and purity regulations, it deals in depth with nearly all aspects of criminal and private law, public law, religious law, and customary law. This makes the Mulukī Ain not only a unique source for political, social, and economic life in Nepal in the 19th century, but also for the position of Hindu jurisprudence in the legal cultures of South Asia," 10.17885/heiup.769.

Bajracharya, Manik (ed.), Slavery and Unfree Labor in Nepal: Documents from the 18th to Early 20th Century, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Vol. 3), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1003.

"Slavery has been insufficiently addressed in Nepalese historiography to date. This collection of sources aims to remedy this situation by making selected documents and legal texts on slavery in Nepal from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century available in edited and translated form and examining them. These sources deal with various aspects of slavery, such as donations, purchase agreements, debt bondage, unfree labor, emancipation, and law." 10.17885/heiup.1003.

Wegner, Gert-Matthias, Drumming in Bhaktapur: Music of the Newar People of Nepal, Volume I: Text, Volume II: Transcriptions, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2023 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Vol. 4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1246.

This groundbreaking publication offers unique insights into one of the most magnificent and diverse musical cultures of the Himalayan region: the numerous drumming traditions of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley are an important aspect of traditional Newar culture, which flourished between the 13th and 18th centuries. The three Malla kingdoms of Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, and Kathmandu competed in art, architecture, music, dance, and opulent city rituals celebrating the presence of the gods. Music served as a portal between the world of humans and the realm of the gods.

This study documents the role and repertoire of various percussion genres in transcribed and annotated form; it is suitable for both practical use and as teaching material. It also contains a dictionary of Newari terms from the field of music. As the study focuses on musical life in Bhaktapur in the decade from 1983 onwards, it can serve as a point of reference for comparison with the current situation. This publication is an outstanding contribution to the preservation of Newar culture.",10.17885/heiup.1246.

Bijay Basukala, Niels Gutschow, Nutandhar Sharma, Patan-Vãbāhā: History and Inventory of a Newar Buddhist Monastery, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Volume 5), DOI: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1116.

This volume presents the religious, architectural, and textual background of Vãbāhā, one of the 16 main monasteries of Patan, one of the three royal cities of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The history of the Buddhist monastery courtyard and its objects is presented together with 42 inscriptions dating from 1596 AD to 2021." 10.17885/heiup.1116.

Khatiwoda, Rajan. Homicide Law in 19th-Century Nepal: A Study of the Mulukī Ains and Legal Documents. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2024 (Documenta Nepalica: Book Series, Volume 7), DOI: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1276

The main objective of this book is to provide a detailed analysis of the creation and enforcement of the Nepalese Mulukī Ain of 1854, with a particular focus on the provisions relating to murder within the Mulukī Ains of 1854 and 1870. In addition, the study also examines contemporary legal records that reveal the complexity of the Ain's implementation. The paragraphs on homicide serve as a microcosm that illustrates the general development of the Nepalese legal system. This system moved away from outdated punishments such as genital mutilation and instead introduced fines and prison sentences. Nevertheless, the innovations incorporated into the Ain of 1854 are not entirely progressive. Thus, in its various stages of development, the Ain illustrates the complex changes that legal systems inevitably undergo." 10.17885/heiup.1276.

Electronic publications

The documents are published continuously on the research project's editing platform. The data is distributed under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; for more information, see Terms of Use.

Since February 2017, they have also been gradually published by Heidelberg University Library, making them permanently available (see'Published editions with DOI').

Publications by staff members

2023

Michaels, Axel. 2023.The Autonomy of Ritual: A Transcultural Perspective. Heidelberg Academic Library 12. Stuttgart: Kröner. 

Id. 2023. Hinduism – Past and Present. New edition. Munich: C.H. Beck.

2022

Bajracharya, Manik, and Axel Michaels. 2022. "Introduction." In Slavery and Unfree Labor in Nepal: Documents from the 18th to Early 20th Century, edited by Manik Bajracharya. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.

Cubelic, Simon, Rajan Khatiwoda, and Axel Michaels. 2022. "Introduction: Slavery and Unfree Labor in the Ain of 1854." In Slavery and Unfree Labor in Nepal: Documents from the 18th to Early 20th Century, edited by Manik Bajracharya. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.

Timalsina, Ramhari. 2022. The Sumatipañjikā: A Commentary on the Cāndravyākaraṇavṛtti 1.1 and 1.4. Pondicherry: Institut Français de Pondichéry / Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient.

Tittel, Sabine. 2022. "Towards an Ontology for Toponyms in Nepalese Historical Documents." In Proceedings of the Workshop on Resources and Technologies for Indigenous, Endangered, and Lesser-Resourced Languages in Eurasia within the 13th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference. Marseille: European Language Resources Association, 7–16.

Zotter, Christof. 2022. "Shades of Power: The Nāth Yogīs in Nepal." In The Power of the Nāth Yogīs, edited by D. Bevilacqua and E. Stuparich. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 197–226.

2021

Cubelic, Simon. 2021. "The Colonial Restoration of the Dharmaśāstra. The Law of Obligations in Sarvoru Śarman's Vivādasārārṇava. Edition, annotated translation, and study of the chapters ṛṇādānanirūpaṇa and upanidhyādinirūpaṇa." Doctoral dissertation, Heidelberg: Univ. Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.11588/heidok.00029448.

Michaels, Axel. 2021. (Edited with Christoph Wulf). Science and Scientification in South Asia and Europe. London and New York: Routledge.

Ibid. 2021. "Can world-renouncing asceticism trigger innovative forces? Three theses." In Creative Impulses and Innovative Achievements of Religious Communities in Medieval Europe, edited by Julia Becker and Julia Burkhardt. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 151–165.

Ibid. 2021 "The place of historical Nepal in the history of South Asian religions." In Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions, edited by Knut A. Jacobson. London and New York: Routledge, 139–150.

Ibid. with Christiane Brosius, Rajan Khatiwoda, Astrid Zotter, Manik Bajracharya, Simon Cubelic, and Arunava Dasgupta. 2021. "Studying, Documenting, and Teaching Nepal's Cultural Heritage." International Institute for Asian Studies. The Newsletter 90: 25–26. https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/newsletter-90-autumn-2021.

Zotter, Astrid. 2021. "Who Kills the Buffalo? Authority and Agency in the Ritual Logistics of the Nepalese Dasaĩ Festival." In Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls and Darbārs, edited by U. Hüsken, V. Narayanan, and A. Zotter. New York: State University of New York Press, 193–220.

Ibid. with Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan. 2021. Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs. New York: State University of New York Press.

Ibid. with Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan. 2021. “Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs: An Introduction.” In Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls and Darbārs, edited by U. Hüsken, V. Narayanan, and A. Zotter. New York: State University of New York Press, 1–13.

2020

Michaels, Axel. 2020. “Mathematics and Vedic mathematics.” In Science and Scientification in South Asia and Europe, edited by A. Michaels and C. Wulf. London and New York: Routledge, 57–68.

Ibid. 2020. "South Asia and South East Asia." In Making Civilizations: The World before 600, edited by H.-J. Gehrke. Cambridge, MA and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 867-1023.

Ibid. (with Christiane Brosius). 2020. "Vernacular Heritage as Urban Place-Making. Activities and Positions in the Reconstruction of Monuments after the Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal, 2015–2020: The Case of Patan," Sustainability 2020 12(20).

Ibid. (ed. with Christoph Wulf). 2020. Science and Scientification in South Asia and Europe. London and New York: Routledge.

Zotter, Astrid. 2020. "Bells, Auspiciousness, and the God of Music: Reflections on Sound in Ritual Space in Nepalese Hindu Traditions." In Worship Sound Spaces: Architecture, Acoustics, and Anthropology, edited by C. Guillebaud and C. Lavandier. London/New York: Routledge, 122–139.

Zotter, Christof. 2020. "The Pragmatic End of Scholasticism: Ritualists and their Textual Tradition." In Les scolastiques indiennes: Genèses, développements, interactions, edited by G. Colas and É. Aussant. Paris/Pondicherry: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 239–250.

2019

Cubelic, Simon. 2019. “Sarvoru Śarman’s Vivādasārārṇava (1789) and the Formation of Sanskritic Legal Knowledge in Early Colonial Bengal.” Reinterpreting Indology and Indian History: Institutions, Intentions, Sources and Issues, edited by Radha Madhav Bharadwaj, 102–119. Delhi: Pratibha Prakashan.

Michaels, Axel. 2019 (edited with Margareta Pavaloi). The Scholar’s Choice: Favorite Pieces of Heidelberg Scholars from the Ethnological Museum of the J. and E. von Portheim Foundation. Heidelberg: heiUP.

Ibid. 2019. "Lost in Transhimalayan Transculturality: Opium, Horses, and an Englishman between China, Tibet, and Nepal." In: B. Mittler et al. (eds.), China and the World – the World and China: Essays in Honor of Rudolf G. Wagner. Gossenberg: Ostasien Verlag, 79–88.

Ibid. 2019. "Slavery in Nepal." In: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences: Yearbook 2018, Heidelberg: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, 38-40.

Ibid. 2019. "Repetition and Reenactments in Rituals." In: J. R. Resina and C. Wulf (eds.), Repetition, Recurrence, Returns: How Cultural Renewal Works. Lanham et al.: Lexington Books, 19-31.

Ibid. 2019. "Cultural Hybrity and Transculturality." In: L. Abu-Er-Rub et al. (eds.), Engaging Transculturality: Concepts, Key terms, Case Studies. London/New York: Routledge, 3-14.

Plachta, Nadine, and Subas Tamang. 2019. “Labor Geographies: Uneven Infrastructures in Nepal’s Rana Period.” Roadsides 002 (Special Issue: Labor). DOI 10.26034/roadsides-2019008.

Zotter, Astrid. 2019. "Paper is patient." In: Yearbook of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, 95-100 .

This. 2019. Review: "Demoting Vishnu: Ritual, Politics, and the Unraveling of Nepal's Hindu Monarchy. By Anne T. Mocko." Journal of the American Oriental Society 139(3): 770–772.

2018

Bajracharya, Manik. 2018. "Munsīs in the Courts of Early Śāha and Rāṇā Rulers: The Career of Lakṣmīdāsa Pradhāna." In: Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 377-398.

Cubelic, Simon. 2018. "Governing Economic Life in Rāṇā Nepal: The Tender Process for the Gambling License at the Market Square of Asan in 1902." In: Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 293-327.

Ders. 2018. „Rezension zu: Otter, Felix: Die Revitalisierung von Vāstuvidyā im kolonialen und nachkolonialen Indien. Heidelberg 2016“. In H-Soz-Kult, 06.07.2018, <www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/rezbuecher-26996>.

Cubelic, Simon, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.). 2018. Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.

This. Nepalese edition: 2018. Kathmandu: National Archives, Nepal.

Cubelic, Simon, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter. 2018. "Studying Documents of South Asia: An Introduction." In: Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 1-33.

Khatiwoda, Rajan. 2018. "Documented Evidence Relating to the Implementation of the Mulukī Ain in Mid-19th Century Nepal." In: Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 243-269.

Michaels, Axel. 2018. "Are Hindu Women Allowed to Establish a Śivaliṅga? A Question Asked in a Letter to Jaṅga Bahādura Rāṇā, Dated 1843 CE." In: Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.

Ibid. 2018. Culture and History of Nepal. Kröner Verlag.

Ibid. 2018. “Rites of Passage: saṃskāras.”In: Patrick Olivelle and Donald R. Davis (eds.), The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 86–97.

Ibid. (ed. with Christoph Wulf). 2018. Images of the Body in India, London : Routledge (reprint).

Zotter, Astrid. 2018. "What Durgā, Which Navarātra? Remarks on Reconfigurations of Royal Rituals in the Kathmandu Valley." In: M. Sen, C. Simmons, and H.P. Rodrigues (eds.), Nine Nights of the Goddess: Navarātri in South Asia and Beyond. New York: SUNY, 39-62.

This. 2018. "Conquering Navarātra: Documents on the Reorganization of a State Festival." In: Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 493-531.

Zotter, Christof. 2018. Temporary Ascetics: The Brahmin Initiation Ritual of the Bāhun and Chetrī in the Kathmandu Valley. Heidelberg : CrossAsia.

Ibid. 2018. "Ascetics in Administrative Affairs: Documents on the Mahantamaṇḍalāī."In: Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 446-491.

Ibid. 2018. "Vedic Practical Knowledge. Discipleship and Ritual in the Brahmanic Tradition." In: Almut-Barbara Renger and Alexandra Stellmacher (eds.), Practical Knowledge in Religion and Philosophy. Production, Transmission, Change. Berlin et al.: Lit Verlag, 225-239.

2017

Bajracharya, Manik, Simon Cubelic, and Rajan Khatiwoda. 2017. “Reporting across Borders in a Time of Turmoil: Eight Reports from Lokaramaṇa Upādhyāya from the Years 1837–1844.” Abhilekha 34: 138–172.

Bajracharya, Manik, and Axel Michaels. 2017. “Religious Approaches to Heritage Restoration in Post-Earthquake Kathmandu.” Material Religion 13 (3): 379–381, DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2017.1335085.

Cubelic, Simon, and Rajan Khatiwoda. 2017. "Nepalese Monarchy in an Age of Codification: Kingship, Patriotism, and Legality in the Nepalese Code of 1854." In: Milinda Banerjee, Charlotte Backerra, and Cathleen Sarti (eds.), Transnational Histories of the 'Royal Nation'. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 67-86.

Michaels, Axel. 2017. "Ritual in Hinduism." In: Tracy Coleman (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in "Hinduism" New York: Oxford University Press, Nov 29, 2017.

Ibid. 2017. "Rituals." In: Greg Bailey (ed.), Hinduism in India: The Early Period, Los Angeles et al.: Sage, 27-59.

Ibid. 2017. "Power and Authority in Hindu Priestly Succession. The Example of the Pasupatinatha Temple in Nepal." In: Almut-Barbara Renger and Markus Witte (eds.), Succession in Religions. Authorization, Legitimization, Knowledge Transfer. Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter, 535-549.

Ibid. 2017. (with Govinda Tandon) Paśupatikṣetra – A Historical Inventory. Kathmandu: Himal Books.

Zotter, Astrid. 2017. "Royal Rituals Without a King: On the Self-Representation of the Nepalese State Between Monarchy and Democracy." Religions on the Move 23.1: 4-9, 16.

This. 2017. Review: "Roots of Wisdom, Branches of Devotion: Plant Life in South Asian Traditions, edited by Fabrizio M. Ferrari and Thomas Dähnhardt." South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2017.1379235.

2016

Bajracharya, Manik, Simon Cubelic, and Rajan Khatiwoda. 2016. “Reporting across Borders: Four Reports of Lokaramaṇa Upādhyāya from the years 1831–1837,” in: Abhilekha 33: 120–133.

Bajracharya, Manik, Axel Michaels. 2016. Nepālikabhūpa-Vaṃśāvalī / History of the Kings of Nepal – A Buddhist Chronicle. Kathmandu : Himal Books. – vol. 1: Introduction and Translation; vol. 2: Edition; vol. 3: (by Niels Gutschow) Maps and Illustrations.

Cubelic, Simon, and Astrid Zotter. 2016. “Report on the International Conference ‘Studying Documents in Pre-modern South Asia and Beyond: Problems and Perspectives’,” in: European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 47: 96–98.

Michaels, Axel. 2016. Homo ritualis. Hindu Rituals and its Significance for Ritual Theory. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.

Ibid. 2016. “Blood Sacrifice in Nepal: Transformations and Criticism,” in: David N. Gellner, Sondra Hausner, Chiara Letizia (eds.), Religion, Secularism, and Ethnicity in Contemporary Nepal. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 192–225.

Ibid., 2016. "Cultural Heritage in Disasters: Nepal and its Earthquakes," in: Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Yearbook 2015, Heidelberg: Academy of Sciences, 78-80.

Michaels, Axel; Manik Bajracharya, Niels Gutschow, Madeleine Herren, Bernd Schneidmüller, Gerald Schwedler, and Astrid Zotter. 2016. “Nepalese History in a European Experience: A Case Study In Transcultural Historiography,” in: History and Theory 55 (2): 210–32.

Zotter, Astrid. 2016. “The Making and Unmaking of Rulers. On Denial of Ritual in Nepal,” in: Ute Hüsken, Udo Simon (eds.), The Ambivalence of Denial. Danger and Appeal of Rituals. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 221–55.

This. 2016. “State Rituals in a Secular State? Replacing the Nepalese King in the Pacali Bhairava Sword Procession and Other Rituals,” in: David N. Gellner, Sondra Hausner, Chiara Letizia (eds.), Religion, Secularism, and Ethnicity in Contemporary Nepal. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 265-301.

This. 2016. "Tell me where the flowers are. On the identification of plant names in Nepalese ritual texts," in: Journal of the German Oriental Society 166 (2): 397-424.

Zotter, Christof. 2016. “The Cremation Ground and the Denial of Ritual. The Case of the Aghorīs and Their Forerunner,” in: Ute Hüsken, Udo Simon (eds.), The Ambivalence of Denial. Danger and Appeal of Rituals. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 43–79.

Ibid. 2016. “The Bonds of the Liberated: On Community among Hindu Ascetics,” in: Gert Melville, Carlos Ruta (eds.), Potency of the Common: Intercultural Perspectives about Community and Individuality. Boston / Berlin: De Gruyter, 239–254.

2015

Bajracharya, Manik, Rajan Khatiwoda, and Axel Michaels. 2015. “Six 19th-20th Century Documents on Elephants from the National Archives of Nepal,” in: Abhilekha 32, 96-105.

Bajracharya, Manik, Niels Gutschow, and Axel Michaels. 2015/16. Nepālikabhūpa-Vaṃśāvalī: History of the Kings of Nepal – A Buddhist Chronicle. Kathmandu : Himal Books. – vol. 1: Manik Bajracharya and Axel Michaels, Introduction and Translation; vol. 2: Manik Bajracharya and Axel Michaels, Edition; vol. 3: Niels Gutschow, Maps and Illustrations.

Michaels, Axel. 2015. "Perspectives and Problems of German-Language Indology," in: D. Lamping (ed.), Humanities Today: The View of the Disciplines. Stuttgart: Kröner, 282-306.

Zotter, Christof. 2015. "Ritual Text in Hindu Initiation," in: H. Schulze (ed.), Musical Text as Ritual Object, Brussels: Brepols, 25-37.

2014

Michaels, Axel. 2014 (with Christoph Wulf, ed.). Exploring the Senses. London, New York, and New Delhi: Routledge.

Michaels, Axel. 2014a. “Untouchability and Tactility in Hindu Death Rituals,” in Axel Michaels and Christoph Wulf (eds.), Exploring the Senses. London, New York, and New Delhi: Routledge, 206–220.

Michaels, Axel. 2014b. "Holy Wives and Dangerous Widows – The Status of Women in Pre-modern Hindu Law," in: Juliane Kokott and Ute Mager (eds.), Religious Freedom and Gender Equality. Tensions and Conflicts. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 91-102.

Zotter, Astrid (with Lars Bednorz). 2014. Hinduism. Workbook with CD-ROM. Stuttgart: Klett.

Zotter, Astrid. 2014. “Scent of a Flower: Notes on Olfaction in Hindu Worship,” in Axel Michaels and Christoph Wulf (eds.), Exploring the Senses. Delhi: Routledge, 187–205.

The database is being developed and the documents published in cooperation with the Nepalese National Archives (Rashtriya Abhilekhalaya, Kathmandu). Cataloguing and digitization are being carried out in consultation and close cooperation with the German Oriental Society (DMG) and the Oriental Department of the Berlin State Library (SBB).

Other partners in the project include the South Asia Institute, which provides administrative and spatial links between the workplaces in Heidelberg and Patan (Nepal), and Heidelberg University Library, whose publication platform Heidelberg Historic Literature Digitized ( DWork) publishes the project's digital editions. This platform also allows for targeted dissemination within the digital academic community (e.g., feeding into CrossAsia).

The project cooperates with theNepal Heritage Documentation Project (NHDP)and participates in the Heidelberg Forum Edition initiative.

XAsia

German Oriental Society

National Archives of Nepal

Nepal Heritage Documentation Project

South Asia Institute

Berlin State Library

Heidelberg University Library

Additional Web Resources

Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), Heidelberg

Department of Archaeology Nepal

Digital Himalaya

Endangered Archives Program 

FID4SA

Heidelberg University - Digital Editions

Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust(KVPT)

Madan Puraskar Library

Martin Chautari

National Archives of Nepal

Nepal-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP), Hamburg

Nepal Heritage Documentation Project(NHDP)

Social Science Baha 

On October 4, 2025, the World Newah Organization—a diaspora organization of Newars from Nepal registered in Baltimore, USA—presented the Nepal Research Group team with an award in recognition of the exhibition "Buṅgadyaḥ: The Rain-Making God" co-curated by the research center at the CATS Library.

Kumar Napit, president of the German section of the World Newah Organization, and Bishnu Malla, a renowned artist from Nepal, presented the certificate on behalf of the World Newah Organization. He expressed their gratitude to the curatorial team—consisting of Prof. Christiane Brosius, Dr. Manik Bajracharya, Dr. Marion Wettstein, Prof. Simon Cubelic, Dr. Monalisa Maharjan, and Dr. Rajan Khatiwoda—for promoting understanding and appreciation of Newar culture in Germany and throughout Europe. He also reaffirmed the diaspora community's commitment to supporting the research group's activities.

The exhibition focuses on the Buṅgadyaḥ (Rāto Matsyendranātha) procession, one of the largest and most elaborate ritual events in the Kathmandu Valley and a prominent element of Newar culture. It illuminates the procession through four interwoven themes: places, people, texts, and performances, each offering insights into the cultural and ritual vitality of this tangible and intangible heritage. The exhibition opened in conjunction with the 28th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS) and will run until November 25, 2025.

The 28th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS) took place in Heidelberg from October 1 to 4, 2025. Staff members of the Research Center contributed to the conference with a panel discussion and presentations. Manik Bajracharya, Nirajan Kafle, and Rajan Khatiwoda chaired the panel "Hinduization and Sanskritization in the Himalayas," which included presentations by Alessandro Giudice, Arik Moran, Astrid Zotter, Devaki Sapkota, Pradip Ghimire, Nirajan Kafle, Manik Bajracharya & Rajan Khatiwoda, and Monalisa Maharjan.

Christof Zotter and Julia Shrestha also presented papers in other panels. Julia Shrestha received this year's EASAS Research Student Award for her paper ("Mundhumi Natak – The Limbu Oral Tradition in Contemporary Nepali Theatre"), which was presented to outstanding doctoral papers at the conference.

The research center also presented its publications at a book stand at the conference.

On September 13, 2025, Shobhit Shakya, Manik Bajracharya, and Rajan Khatiwoda presented at the Newah Academic Conference on Culture and Heritage (NACCH) at SOAS University of London. Their presentations were titled "Newars and Their Heritage: From Heritage Mentality to Ecological Approach to Heritage?" (Shakya) and "Challenges and Opportunities in Documenting the Tangible and Intangible Heritage of the Kathmandu Valley" (Bajracharya and Khatiwoda).

The Research Center welcomes Dr. Shobhit Shakya as a new member of staff. He will be pursuing a post-doctoral project on traditional institutions in Nepal, their role in historical administration, and their development throughout history. Shobhit holds a PhD in Administrative Sciences from the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. His research focuses on perspectives from non-Western governance, with a particular emphasis on the Himalayan region, and explores topics such as Buddhist governance principles, digitality, and social engagement. He has studied the Guthi institution in Nepal extensively from the perspective of local governance. Shobhit is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London, UK, and editor-in-chief of the journal Halduskultuur – The Estonian Journal of Administrative Culture and Digital Governance.  

On December 7, 2024, Marija Grujovska and Julia Shrestha presented their research findings on documents from the Documenta Nepalica corpus at the 14th International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (IIGRS) at Toyo University in Tokyo, Japan. Their presentations were titled: "The Daily and Occasional Worship Trust of Tripureśvara Temple" (Marija Grujovska) and "'May We Obtain nagarās?'—Insights into the Socio-Political Roles of nagarā Kettledrums among the Limbu Indigenous Group from 19th-Century Nepalese Documents" (Julia Shrestha).

On November 10, 2024, Dr. Rajan Khatiwoda presented his book Homicide Law in 19th-Century Nepal: A Study of the Muluki Ains and Legal Documents (Heidelberg University Publishing, Documenta Nepalica: Book Series, Volume 7, 2024) at the Martin Chautari Institute in Kathmandu. The occasion was the publication of the South Asian edition of the book by Vajra Books. This edition is intended to make the work accessible to a wider audience in Nepal and South Asia.

Prof. Triratna Manandhar from Tribhuvan University (Kathmandu) and Shubhanga Pandey, doctoral candidate at the University of California (Los Angeles), enriched the event with their contributions.  https://vajrabookshop.com/product/homicide-law-in-19th-century-nepal-a-study-of-the-muluki-ains-and-legal-documents/

On October 21, 2024, the Research Department, in collaboration with the Martin Chautari Institute, the South Asia Institute Kathmandu Branch, and the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project, organized a joint lecture program to discuss and exchange ongoing research projects and infrastructures. The program took place at Yala Maya Kendra in Patan, Nepal, and included a session led by Dr. Manik Bajracharya entitled "Documenta Nepalica: A Digital Research Environment for the Study of Nepal's Historical Documents," in which Dr. Bajracharya presented the research unit's digital infrastructure and its applications for the study of Nepal's historical documents. Dr. Rajan Khatiwoda gave a presentation on: Digital Preservation of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Kathmandu Valley. Pratyoush Onta and Devendra Uprety gave a presentation on: History of Public School Education in Nepal during the Long 20th Century: Non-State-Centric Perspectives and Examples.

On August 16, 2024 , The Mulukī Ain of 1854 – Nepal's First Legal Code by Simon Cubelic, Rajan Khatiwoda, and Axel Michaels was presented at an event organized by the Kathmandu branch of Heidelberg University's South Asia Institute . Originally published in 2021 by Heidelberg University Publishing as part of the Documenta Nepalica book series , the book has now been reissued by Vajra Publications to make it accessible to a wider audience in Nepal and South Asia.

The event began with a presentation of the book by Dr. Rajan Khatiwoda, followed by comments from Prof. Prayag Raj Sharma and a stimulating discussion among the participants. https://kathmandupost.com/books/2024/07/27/english-translation-of-muluki-ain-1854-published

On July 20, 2024, Prof. Axel Michaels published Nepal: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2024).

This book traces the history of Nepal's cultural, religious, and sociopolitical diversity as a landlocked country between India and China (Tibet) – a country with 125 recognized ethnic groups, 123 languages, and a wealth of religions, textual and art-historical traditions, and different political centers of power.

The focus is on a transcultural history of the region that takes into account different political demands and forms of organization, multiple and fluid identities, and cross-border transcultural, transreligious, and economic interrelationships.

A recurring theme throughout the book is the question of how the country's major challenges in terms of social conflict, nationalization, infrastructure, education, migration, divided forms of government, and political instability can be overcome without jeopardizing its impressive ethnic and cultural diversity.

Michaels, Axel. 2024. Nepal: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press https://academic.oup.com/book/56088

On June 29, 2024, Marija Grujovska and Julia Shrestha gave presentations at the 3rd German South Asia Day (June 28-29) at the University of Leipzig. Their presentations were titled "Royal Land Endowments in 19th-Century Nepal" (Marija Grujovska) and "The Yuma Mundhum: An Oral Text about the Limbu Grandmother Goddess from Eastern Nepal" (Julia Shrestha).

The Research Center warmly welcomes Julia Shrestha as a new research assistant. Julia holds a master's degree in South Asian Studies with a focus on anthropology from Heidelberg University. She is working on her doctorate at the University of Vienna on the topic of Yuma Mundhum—an ethnographic study of oral text traditions about the Limbu grandmother deity Yuma. Her research interests lie in the anthropology of written and oral texts, religion and ritual, and critical studies of ethnicity in the context of Nepal. At the Research Center, she edits documents on the history of eastern Nepal and documents that shed light on the construction of ethnicity and the relationships between the local population and the state.

The Research Center bids a fond farewell to Dr. Simon Cubelic, who was appointed Deputy Head of the South Asia Department of the Library of the Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS) in June 2024. Simon Cubelic has been a valued colleague as a research assistant since the Research Center was founded in 2014. In addition, he has been working as a research librarian in the CATS library since 2020. Simon will remain associated with the Research Center in his new role. We would like to thank Simon for his many years of service, congratulate him on his new position, and wish him all the best for his professional future.

On May 27 and 28, 2024, the Research Center, together with the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences), organized a conference that examined Nepal's transcultural relations with its neighbors India, China, and Tibet, while also honoring Axel Michaels on the occasion of his 75th birthday. By addressing the topic of transculturality in the Nepalese context, the conference highlighted a central theme in Prof. Michael's academic work.

Four panels brought together contributions on topics that examined historical and contemporary transregional relationships and dynamics, global interconnections, and cross-border interactions in the areas of material culture, religion, and social relations. The keynote address, "A yam or a sausage? Elastic boundaries, internal exotica, and other features in the slow coagulation of a nation," by Prof. Charles Ramble, critically questioned King Pṛthvīnārāyaṇa Śāha's image of Nepal as a "yam root between two rocks" and provocatively contrasted it with sausage as an alternative metaphor for Nepal's nation-building.

The conference concluded with the presentation of Prof. Michaels' newly published book "Nepal: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present" (Oxford University Press, 2024), which was introduced by Prof. David Gellner.

DOCUMENTA NEPALICA VOL. 7   

Khatiwoda, Rajan. Homicide Law in 19th-Century Nepal: A Study of the Mulukī Ains and Legal Documents. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2024 (Documenta Nepalica: Book Series, Vol. 7). https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1276

On March 9, 2024, Dr. Manik Bajracharya gave a lecture at a conference on the emergence and formation of Newar Buddhism at the University of California, Berkeley. The title of his lecture was: "Royal Patronage of the Cult of Bungama-Lokeshvara under King Srinivasa Malla."

On March 10, 2024, Dr. Bajracharya held a workshop on the digital infrastructures of Documenta Nepalica and the NHDP during the same conference.

On February 19, 2024, Dr. Manik Bajracharya gave a lecture as part of the Joseph C. Miller Memorial Lecture Series at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies at the University of Bonn. The title of his lecture was: "Slavery in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Nepal."

The lecture dealt with slavery and other forms of unfree labor in Nepal in the 18th and 19th centuries, examining their typology, the role of slaves in the social order, and the processes of enslavement and emancipation.

On February 9, 2024, Prof. Axel Michaels gave a lecture at the Heidelberg Museum of Ethnology on the topic of "The wars between Nepal and China/Tibet: Who won them?"

In his lecture, Prof. Michaels untangled the complicated web of political dynamics and twists and turns of the wars in order to shed light on their unexpected end in the paradoxical claim of victory by both sides.

At the Academy Day, which took place on November 7, 2023, and was dedicated to the topic "What is justice? – Concepts of justice in global comparison," the research center was represented with a booth on the history of slavery and the caste system in Nepal. Further information on the event can be found here. 

Documenta Nepalica Vol. 4

Wegner, Gert-Matthias, Drumming in Bhaktapur: Music of the Newar People of Nepal, Volume I: Text, Volume II: Transcriptions, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2023 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Vol. 4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1246.

As part of the project "Postcolonial Restitution in the Digital Age: Archiving and Contextualizing a Private Collection of Nepalese Manuscripts," conservators Mark Barnard and Kumiko Matsuoka visited the research center in September 2023 to work on the preservation of medieval palm leaf manuscripts from a private collection. The previous year, Kumiko Matsuoka and Naoko Takagi had come to Heidelberg for a pilot study. During both stays, a total of 465 palm leaf manuscripts were opened, scanned, and conserved.   

Members of the Research Center, together with the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project, organized the panel "Stasis and Motion in the Processional Culture of Kathmandu Valley: The Buṅgadyaḥ Yātrā Revisited" at the 27th European Conference for South Asian Studies (ECSAS)in Turin in July 2023. The panel, chaired by Manik Bajracharya, Christiane Brosius, and Rajan Khatiwoda, included contributions from David Andolfatto, Simon Cubelic, Rajan Khatiwoda, Manik Bajracharya, Bruce Owens, Christiane Brosius, Monalisa Maharjan, and Bibek Basukala.

Dr. Astrid Zotter will be moving to a permanent position as a research assistant in the Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University on April 1, 2023. We would like to thank Astrid for her many years of tireless service as deputy head of the research center and wish her all the best for her future career. 

Project collaborators Simon Cubelic and Astrid Zotter, together with Nina Mirnig (Austrian Academy of Sciences), organized the panel "Inscriptions as Social Artefacts: Revisiting South Asian Epigraphic Cultures" at the 34th German Oriental Studies Conference(September 12-17, 2022) at Freie Universität Berlin. The panel examined the diverse functions that inscriptions played in the construction of spaces, social identities, and political authority in South Asia. The panel contributors were Diwakar Acharya, Georg Berkemer, Simon Cubelic, Valerie Gillet, Timothy Lubin, Nina Mirnig, and Ingo Strauch.

In addition, Simon Cubelic and Astrid Zotter gave a joint presentation on the relationship between the state and foundations in 19th-century Nepal as part of the panel discussion "Philanthropy through the Millennia," organized by Prof. Joachim Friedrich Quack. 

The project "Modeling Text Editions as Linked Data (edition2LD)" of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, led by Dieta Svoboda-Baas and Sabine Tittel, is funded as part of the NFDI Text+ consortium.  The project aims to use existing project data from the research center "Religious and Legal History Sources of Pre-modern Nepal" to develop a workflow that maps editions in the form of RDF triples with maximum automation and can be transferred to other projects. 

The Research Center welcomes Marija Grujovska as a new member of staff, who will be pursuing her doctoral research within the framework of the project. Marija completed a BA in Ethnology at the University of Vienna and an MA in Cultural and Religious History of South Asia at the University of Heidelberg.  In her dissertation project, Marija is investigating the administrative history of the Tripureśvara Mahādeva Temple in Kathmandu from its foundation in the early 19th century to the present day, combining methods of archival and field research.    

A short portrait of the research center is available on the YouTube channel of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities here.

Documenta Nepalica Volume 3

Bajracharya, Manik (ed.), Slavery and Unfree Labor in Nepal: Documents from the 18th to Early 20th Century, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Vol. 3), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1003.

Documenta Nepalica Volume 5

Bijay Basukala, Niels Gutschow, Nutandhar Sharma, Patan-Vãbāhā: History and Inventory of a Newar Buddhist Monastery, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Volume 5), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1116.

The South Asia Institute (SAI) held a Nepal Day on July 21 and 22, 2022, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the SAI branch office in Nepal and the 60th anniversary of the SAI.

The event began with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Heidelberg University and Tribhuvan University, represented by their respective rectors, Prof. Bernhard Eitel and Prof. Shiva Lal Bhusal. This was followed by welcoming speeches by Prof. Rahul Mukherji, Director of the SAI, Rector Prof. Bhusal, and Prof. Christiane Brosius. During the panel discussion "What have we learned from Nepal?", Prof. Niels Gutschow and Prof. Axel Michaels reflected on their many years of research in Nepal.

Nepal Day also provided an opportunity to present ongoing research projects. These included the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (presented by Rajan Khatiwoda and Bharat Maharjan), the research center "Religious and Legal History Sources of Pre-modern Nepal" at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (presented by Dr. Manik Bajracharya and Dr. Astrid Zotter), "Urban Transformation and Placemaking" (presented by Prof. Christiane Brosius and Sujan Chitrakar), and "Himalayan Socio-Hydrology: Evidence from Nepal" (presented by Prof. Marcus Nüsser and Dr. Susanne Schmidt).

This was followed by presentations by Prof. Sagar Raj Sharma (Kathmandu University) entitled "Dilemmas of a Nation in Transition," which dealt with Nepal's socioeconomic and environmental challenges, and by Prof. Martin Gaenszle (University of Vienna) on "Ethnic Traditions and Global Archives: Changing Research Conditions in Nepal." Prof. Gaenszle's lecture highlighted the potential of digital archiving methods for ethnographic documentation and reflected on the challenges associated with them.

On July 22, Prof. Brosius moderated a round-table discussion on future cooperation between Heidelberg University, Tribhuvan University, and Kathmandu University.

The South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University has maintained a branch office in Kathmandu for 35 years.

As Prof. Dr. Rahul Mukherji, Executive Director of the South Asia Institute, emphasizes, Nepal has become a focal point of Asian studies at Heidelberg University. "There is no other place in the world with such a concentration of disciplinary and region-specific expertise, research, and projects."

Further information can be found here

Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, Astrid Zotter (eds.), Nine Nights of Power. Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs, SUNY series in Hindu Studies, 2021, ISBN13: 978-1-4384-8407-5 (available as hardcover, Google eBook, and Kindle Edition, see here).

Documenta Nepalica Volume 2

Rajan Khatowoda, Simon Cubelic, Axel Michaels (eds.), The Mulukī Ain of 1854. Nepal's First Legal Code, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2021 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Volume 2), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.769.

As part of LREC 2022, the "Workshop on Resources and Technologies for Indigenous, Endangered, and Lesser-resourced Languages in Eurasia (EURALI)" took place in Marseille on June 20, 2022. Sabine Tittel presented work on a place name ontology for Documenta Nepalica in the form of a poster and lecture entitled "Towards an Ontology for Toponyms in Nepalese Historical Documents."

As part of the lecture series "Asian Religions and the Politics of Heritage, " organized by the South Asia Institute & Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies (website of the event series: https://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/IND/en/index.php), the following lectures took place in June and July:

"Heritage Politics at the Paśupatinātha Temple in Nepal,"
Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels,
Thursday, June 24, 2021, 11:15 a.m., see here.

"Places of Value: Inscriptions as Valorization Practices at Cultural Heritage Sites in Kathmandu Valley,"
Dr. Simon Cubelic,
Thursday, July 8, 2021, 11:15 a.m., see here.

As part of the pilot project "Anthropology of Inscriptions: Memory and Cultural Heritage in the Public Sphere" (HCTS/Flagship Initiative "Transforming Cultural Heritage"), the first catalog entries of inscriptions from the Digital Archive of Nepalese Arts and Monuments (DANAM) have been successfully integrated into the Documenta Nepalica database. The data set, comprising 137 inscriptions from around 60 monuments (marked with the identifier "NHDP"), can now be searched within the Documenta Nepalica catalog, which contains more than 60,000 entries from public and private archives in Nepal. In the future, new entries from the DANAM inscription catalog will be regularly transferred to the database. The transfer is part of efforts to link the databases of both projects and enables further interdisciplinary research on Nepal's textual, art-historical, and intangible cultural heritage. The Documenta Nepalica catalog search can be accessed here.

On February 26, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CET, the virtual international symposium "The Digital Preservation of Asian Manuscripts and Documents" took place. The symposium was held in collaboration with the Digital Archiving and Research Department at Otani University, Kyoto. The program can be found via the link below.

South Asia Institute (SAI)

University of Heidelberg

Voßstr. 2, Building 4130 | 69115 Heidelberg

Phone: +49 (0) 6221 / 54 15207

Email: nepal[at]hadw-bw.de

Nepal branch

South Asia Institute

University of Heidelberg

Kathmandu Branch Office

Ward No. 1, Kopundole Height

P.O. Box 4379 | Patan, Nepal

Web editing of this project page

Dr. Manik Bajracharya