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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

📷 Photo Credits:
1. Self-portrait
2. Giriraj, Krishna in the form of a mountain rock (photo by Prema Goet)
3. Fieldwork at Radhakunda, with Nitai Das (photo by Ferdia G)

ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

(cont'd.) and the relationship between the aniconic materiality of mantras and the somatic experiences provided by embodied practices amongst the practitioners of rāgānugā bhakti at the greater area of Vrindavana in Uttar Pradesh, India.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

Goet’s thesis focuses on the translocality of sacred spaces within the lived and imagined Gaudiya Vaishnavism cartography

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

📌His doctoral research at University of Vienna combines multi-disciplinary methodologies from across various fields.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

He has produced and published films and books on material culture and performative rituals ranging from popular to ascetic practices in Vaishnava communities, Shaiva and Shakta tantras, folk religion, Newar Buddhism, Himalayan animism and more.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

He holds a B.A., in Sanskrit and South Asian Studies and an M.A., in Philosophy and Religion from The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) – University of London. Goet possesses a wide range of theoretical and practical expertise in ethnographic fieldwork in South Asia.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

He is an ethno-indologist, artist and multi-disciplinary researcher whose main interest lies in ritual and visual studies, intellectual history, cultures and languages of South Asia.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 4

🧾Prema Goet is a doctoral researcher for MANTRAMS Task Force 3 at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies — University of Vienna and a research fellow for The Śākta Traditions Research Programme at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, in the UK.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

Additionally, by focusing on the marginalized voices of Dalit women, her research will also explore how sound, silence, and listening reclaim agency within male-dominated public soundscapes.

📷 Photo Credits:
Image 2- Painting by P. B. Madakwar, showing Dr. Ambedkar, the Buddha, and Deekshabhoomi.

ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

It further investigates the interplay between the "religious" and "secular" in neo-Buddhist Dalit practices and explores how these auditory forms reshape urban spaces into sites of belonging and resistance.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

Devyani’s research aims to understand how these sonic practices shape and transform both physical and social landscapes creating social agency and reasserting identities.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

She will do so by revisiting physical spaces of cultural significance in the annual Dalit calanders such as Chaityabhumi in Mumbai, Deekshabhumi in Nagpur, and Mahad to name a few, and explore the intersection of religious sounds and spaces for Dalit Buddhists.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

📌Devyani’s research for MANTRAMS focuses on the role of sonic elements—such as mantras, chanting, greetings, and slogans—in the assertion of Dalit identity, visibility, and resistance in urban spaces of Western India.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

Her master's thesis explored the impact of anti-caste ideological discourse on the creation of popular prints and iconographies. Additionally, she has explored themes in South Asian art history and visual culture, with a particular focus on Dalit Neo-Buddhist popular practices in Maharashtra.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

She also holds a second master's in Social Work in Dalit and Tribal Studies and Action from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jul 1

🧾Devyani Bhosale joins MANTRAMS as a predoctoral researcher, bringing an interdisciplinary background in South Asian Studies with a focus on anthropology. She holds a Master's in Development Environment Societies and History in South Asia from Heidelberg University, Germany.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 25

She is also in charge of navigating transparency and access with data protection and vulnerabilities as well as the digital sustainability of the project and data.

📷 Photo Credits:
1.Marshia Khan
2. Edda Sofie Schwarzkopf

ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 25

She negotiates and collaborates with technicians, and carries the digital data coming in to the OMnibus, an immersive multimedia website that will be a key deliverable of the project.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 25

📌While most MANTRAMS team members are heading out into the world, Edda's work is mostly concerned with holding down the technical fort at home. She develops, maintains and mends the MANTRAMS Data Hub, our cloud infrastructure.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 25

With a background in Cultural Anthropology, Conflict Studies, Communication Studies and having completed a M. Sc. Digital Humanities, she is located at the intersection between project members and research data management institutions like the Digital Humanities Center at the University of Tübingen.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 25

🧾Edda Sofie Schwarzkopf is the Digital Humanities and Data Management Officer (DHDMO) of MANTRAMS.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 20

📌As a Master’s student in the Languages and Cultures of South Asia program, Lea's academic interest lies in the intersection of mantra and yoga. She combines her administrative expertise with a deep passion for the project’s themes.

ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 20

🧾Lea Stiller supports the MANTRAMS team in Vienna with project administration and management, helping to coordinate research activities, events, and deliverables. She plays a key role in organizing workshops, managing budgets, preparing reports, and assisting with outreach efforts.

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ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 17

📷 Photo Credits:
1. Under Mahiṣāsuramardiṇī at Mahabalipuram, 2023.
2. At CVN Kalari Sangham, East Fort, Thiruvananthapuram, 2025.
3. With G.Sathyanarayanan Nair gurukkaḷ, 2013, photo by Jayan N.P. Jayan.
Photos 1&2 by LM Constantini.

ERC Synergy MANTRAMS Project @mantrams.bsky.social · Jun 17

She will also be opening up a new area, studying materiality in the objects astrologers fix mantras into as remedies for their clients. Her work centres on the southwest Indian state of Kerala and its unique culture and practices.

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