Nirajan Kafle - Ashoka University

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Nirajan Kafle

Head of the Department and Associate Professor of Sanskrit, Ashoka University

Ph.D. Institute for Area Studies, Leiden
https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/NirajanKafle nirajan.kafle@ashoka.edu.in

Nirajan Kafle is Associate Professor of Sanskrit at Ashoka University. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,”working on the ‘Sivadharma’ European Research Council project. After completing a D.Phil. from the University of Leiden, Nirajan held a post-doctoral research position in the NWO project ‘From Universe of Viṣṇu to Universe of Śiva’. Nirajan has worked with the NGMCP, Kathmandu and the EFEO, Pondicherry EFEO. He has also taught Sanskrit and other allied topics at the Universities of Loyola(New Orleans),  Leiden,  Lumbini and Kathmandu. He works on Lay Śaivism,  Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata, and his interests also cover Śaiva Tantra  and Vedic texts. 

His current research focuses on the text-based evaluation of religious, cultural, and philosophical exchange – principally between the Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva and Buddhist traditions of early mediæval South Asia, with specific emphasis on the religious and social milieu of the Kathmandu valley reflected in the Umāmāheśvarasaṃvāda and the Dharmaputrikā in their historical context.

  • Kafle, Nirajan (together with Peter C. Bisschop and Csaba Kiss). 2025. Śaiva Rites of Fasting and the Gift of Cattle: A Study in Purāṇic and Tantric Appropriation. Studies on the History of Śaivism, 3. Naples: University of Napoli L’Orientale Press.
  • Kafle, Nirajan (together with Timothy C. Cahill). 2024. Paṇḍitarājaśataka: An Anthology of Poems Ascribed to Paṇḍitarāja Jagannātha. New Edition and First English Translation with Critical Introduction. Collection Indologie 163. Pondichéry: Institut Français de Pondichéry / École Française d’Extrême-Orient.
  • Kafle, Nirajan (together with Peter C. Bisschop and Timothy Lubin). 2021. A Śaiva Utopia: The Śivadharma’s Revision of Brahmanical Varṇāśramadharma. Studies on the History of Śaivism, 1. Naples: University of Napoli L’Orientale Press.
  • Kafle, Nirajan. 2020. Niśvāsamukhatattvasaṃhitā: A Preface to the Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra (on Non-Tantric Śaivism at the Dawn of the Mantramārga). Critical Edition, with Introduction and Annotated Translation, and an Appendix containing Śivadharmasaṅgraha 5 – 9. Collection Indologie 145, Early Tantra Series 6. Pondichéry / Hamburg: IFP / EFEO, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg.
  • Kafle, Nirajan (contributor). Edited by Dominic Goodall in collaboration with Alexis Sanderson & Harunaga Isaacson 2015. Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, the Earliest Surviving Śaiva Tantra. A Critical Edition & Annotated Translation of the Mūlasūtra, Uttarasūtra & Nayasūtra. Collection Indologie 128. Early Tantra Series 1. Volume 1. Pondichéry/ Hamburg: Institut Français de Pondichéry / École Française d’Extrême-Orient / Asien-afrika-institut, Universität Hamburg.
  • April–June 2026: Shivdasani Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford, UK.
  • January–March 2026: Visiting Scholar at Heidelberg University, Germany, as part of the Documenta Nepalica project of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
  • 2024 (Dec)–2025 (Jan): Visiting Scholar at the University of Heidelberg, as part of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities project Documenta Nepalica, Germany.
  • 2019–2022: ERC grant for Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Śivadhrama project (No. 803624), University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy.
  • 2015–2019: Dutch Research Council (NWO) Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Leiden, Netherlands.
  • 2014: Gonda Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship for research at IIAS, Leiden, Netherlands.
  • 2013: Visiting Scholarship, University of Kyōto, Japan.
  • 2011:  NGMCP & NRC Grant (Germany) for the Maṇicūḍajātaka Workshop (Nov. 1–18) in Pune, India.
  • 2009: Oxford grant for the Oxford First International Graduate Research Symposium, Oxford, UK.
  • 2008–2010: Full-time Research Scholarship in a Franco-German project, funded by Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (France) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany).
  • 2005: Gold Medal, Nepal Sanskrit University, Nepal.
  • May 2001:  On May 1, 2001, I was appointed as of the three editors of Nepalese Academic Magazine Aruṇodaya, published from Kathmandu.
  • 10/2001—12/2002    From October 2001 to December 2002 I worked as Cultural Columnist for a Nepalese National daily newspaper, Nayā Saḍak Dainik, published in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Articles:

  • Kafle, Nirajan, and Rajan Khatiwoda. 2026. “The Early Years of the Establishment of Tīndhārā Pāṭhaśālā: Purpose, Structure, and Administration” (tīnadhārā pāṭhaśālāko sthāpanākā surūkā varṣaharū: uddeśya, saṁracanā ra prasāsana). Samāja Adhyayana 21: 105 – 148.
  • Kafle, Nirajan, and Rajan Khatiwoda. 2025. “Five Documents Shedding Light on the State of Education in Nepal Prior to the Introduction of Formal Schooling” (nepālamā aupacārika śikṣā thālani aghiko śaikṣika avasthābāre prakāśa pārne pāṅc dastvej). Samāja Adhyayana 21: 247 – 271.
  • Kafle, Nirajan. 2021. “The Umāmaheśvarasaṃvāda of the Śivadharma and its Network.” In Śivadharmāmṛta: Essays on the Śivadharma and its Network, edited by Florinda De Simini and Csaba Kiss, 233 – 254. Naples: UniorPress.
  • Kafle, Nirajan. 2019. “The Kṛṣṇāṣṭamīvrata as Expounded in the Śivadharmaśāstra: The Ascendancy of an Innovative Model?” Indo-Iranian Journal 62: 340 – 383.
  • Kafle, Nirajan. 2013. “The Liṅgodbhava Myth in Early Śaiva Sources.” In Puṣpikā: Contributions to Current Research in Indology, vol. 1, 241 – 263. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Annotated Editions, Translations and Studies of Pre-Modern Historical Documents from Nepal

Published in Documenta Nepalica, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Dates are in Vikrama Saṃvat (VS).

I. Bālāśaṃkara’s Correspondence from Delhi to the Nepalese Royal Court (VS 1893 – 1901)

II.  Royal Patronage and the Support of Sanskrit Education in Premodern Nepal (VS 1932)

                          Edited and translated by Nirajan Kafle and Rajan Khatiwoda.

III. Administration of Religious Endowments in Premodern Nepal: Guṭhī Institutions and Royal Orders (VS 1947–1956)

                           Edited and translated by Nirajan Kafle and Rajan Khatiwoda.

Advanced-level courses:

  • Reading Early Śaiva Tantra: The Vāmadevakalpa of the Guhyasūtra
  • Sanskrit in the Historical Context of Kashmir: Reading the Rājataraṅgiṇī
  • Advanced Sanskrit I: Reading Texts from an Unpublished Manuscript, Umāmaheśvarasaṃvāda
  • Introduction to Hinduism: Ascetic and Non-Ascetic Traditions
  • Śaṅkara’s Commentaries on the Upaniṣads (readings from the Kaṭha, Taittirīya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka and Chāndogya Upaniṣads)
  • Śaṅkara’s Commentary on the Bhagavadgītā
  • Rāmānuja’s Commentary on the Bhagavadgītā
  • Interactions between Buddhism and Hinduism
  • Bodhicaryāvatāra of Śāntideva
  • Kāvyādarśa of Daṇḍin and Laghusiddhāntakaumudī of Varadarājācārya

Intermediate-level courses:

  • Classical Sanskrit Kāvya: Kādambarīkathāsāra of Abhinanda
  • Sanskrit Narrative and Didactic Literature: Nala and Damayantī, from Lanman’s Sanskrit Reader
  • Sanskrit Narrative and Didactic Literature: Hitopadeśa
  • Upaniṣadic Literature: Kaṭha, Taittirīya and Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣads
  • Purāṇic Literature: Viṣṇupurāṇa
  • Sanskrit Narrative and Didactic Literature: Buddhacarita of Aśvaghoṣa

Beginner and beginner-to-intermediate courses:

  • Sanskrit language: beginner and beginner-to-intermediate levels
  • Sanskrit language: beginner and beginner-to-intermediate levels
  • Sanskrit language: beginner and beginner-to-intermediate levels
  • Introduction to Buddhism
  • Sanskrit language: beginner and beginner-to-intermediate levels

Elective courses designed and taught at Ashoka University:

  • Death and Rebirth in South Asian Philosophy, Myth, and Ritual
  • From Mantras to Magic: Exploring South Asian Tantra through Gnosis, Ritual, and the Mystic Arts
  • The Geography of Religion in the Indian Subcontinent
  • Readings in Yogaśāstra: Historical Introduction and Development through Sanskrit and Vernacular Sources

Sanskrit Reading Salon: Co-organiser and leader:

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