Vasudha Narayanan (USA/IND)

is Distinguished Professor of Religion and Director of the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions (CHiTra) at the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Bombay in 1978. From 1975 to 1977, she was resident graduate student at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University. She has been Tamal Krishna Goswami Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies in October 2004, also she has been President of the American Academy of Religions from 2001 to 2002, president elect. from 2000 to 2001 and vice-president from 1999 to 2000. She has been guest lecturer at the following universities: 1999 in Harvard, 2000 in Jerusalem, 2003 in Chenna (India); in 2004, she held the Wahlstrom lecture in Oxford. Her fields of interest are the Sri Vaishnava tradition; Hindu traditions in India, Cambodia, America; Hinduism and the environment; and gender issues. She is currently working on Hindu temples and Vaishnava traditions in Cambodia. Her publications include: ’Non-Violence is the highest Virtue (Mahabharata)’: Hindu Resources for Peace and Reconciliation (London 2003); The Tamil Ramayana and its Muslim Interpreters (Oxford 2000); The Life of Hinduism edited with John Stratton Hawley (Columbia 2007); Monastic Life in the Christian and Hindu Traditions: A comparative study (edited with Austin B. Creel 1990) and Shanti: Peace for the Mind, Body and Soul: Well being, health and Healing in the Hindu Traditions;Religious Vocabulary and Regional Identity: The Tamil Cira Puranam [Life of the Prophet] (Gainesville 2000). Vasudha Narayanan is associate editor of the Encyclopaedia of Hinduism.