Dr. Nathan Katz
Jain Education and Research Foundation
Phyllis Granoff, the Lex Hixon Professor of World Religions at Yale University, will deliver the First Annual Mahavir Jayanti Lecture at 6 p.m. on April 13, 2011, at FIU's Patricia and Phyllip Frost Art Museum, 10975 SW 17th Street, Miami, on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus.
She will present an illustrated lecture, “Images of the Conqueror - Jain Art,” based on her most recent book. Copies will be available for purchase and signing.
The program will open with a raga by Jorge Alfano on the bansuri flute and Jeffrey Dean on the table, and followed by a reception hosted by the Jain community.
Granoff is one of the world's leading scholars of Indian religions whose work has focused on mythology, cults, image worship, art, literature, poetry and medieval Indian law codes. She is fluent in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, Ardha Magadhi, Bengali, Hindi, Assamese, Gujarati and Oriya. Among her books are The Forest Thieves and the Magic Garden: An Anthology of Medieval Jain Stories (1998), The Journey: Stories by Kishor Charan Das (2000), Images in Asian Religions (2004), Pilgrims, Patrons and Place: Localizing Sanctity in Asian Religions (2003), and Speaking of Monks: Religious Biography in India and China (1992).
The event is sponsored by the Bhagwan Mahavir Professorship and the “Target After Hours” program at the Frost Art Museum, and co-sponsored by the Jain Education and Research Foundation, FIU's Department of Religious Studies, FIU's Asian Studies Program, and TAK Religious Studies Honors Society. It is free and open to the public.
