Dr. Adheesh Sathaye, Associate Professor of Sanskrit Literature and South Asian Folklore, University of British Columbia will deliver this year's Tessa J. Bartholomeusz Lecture, "Language of the Zombies: Shivadasa’s Vetala Tales and the Sanskrit Public Culture of Medieval India" on Thursday, March 7th at 5:00 p.m. in the Dodd Hall Auditorium. The flyer for the event is available here. 

What makes a civilization “great”? In premodern India, this meant speaking in the classical language of Sanskrit, which for millennia was used to create literary and intellectual masterpieces of the highest order. But what happened when Indian vernacular cultures began to grow more popular? Did Sanskrit die? Or rather, did it become undead? With these questions in mind, this talk will explore how vernacular modes of religiosity, creativity, and wisdom were at play in a well-loved anthology of Sanskrit folktales, and how these stories helped to shaped a mainstream public consciousness in medieval India.