Lecture: "Maṇika and the first Manuscript Witnesses of Newari Literature" [in English]

Abstract 

Several scholars described the reign of king Jayasthitimalla as a pivotal moment in the history of Nepal Mandala. The paper will explore the role of Maṇika, an intellectual active in shaping the cultural landscape of this period. In particular, it will focus on manuscripts sources of Maṇika's works considered to be the first extant literary witnesses of Newari literature. Moreover, it will consider also other manuscript sources for the cultural history of 14th century Nepal Mandala.

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About the speaker

Camillo A. Formigatti started studying Indology and Sanskrit as a secondary when he was studying Classics at the Università Statale in Milan. He studied Sanskrit, Classical Tibetan and textual criticism in Marburg and Sanskrit and manuscript studies in Hamburg. From 2008 to 2011, he worked as a research associate on the project “In the Margins of the Text: Annotated Manuscripts from Northern India and Nepal,” within the framework of the research group Manuskriptkulturen in Asien und Afrika, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. After that, he worked in the Sanskrit Manuscripts Project at the University of Cambridge from 2011 to 2014. He was John Clay Sanskrit Librarian until 2022 and Information Analyst for Asian collections until 2024 at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He is currently working as Research Collaborator in the project “Universals in Indian Philosophy of Language,” Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia.