Annual Early Hindi Workshop

(via Imre Bangha and Gyanam Mahajan)

This year’s summer Early Hindi Workshop (the eighth since 2021) will be held online between 12 and 24 July 2021, with one 90-minute reading session each working day (Monday to Saturday) followed by a 30-minute discussion.

As in previous workshops, we are going to read and discuss texts on which a particular academic is working. Academics and students with a solid foundation in Brajbhasha or another form of early Hindi, and familiarity with essential grammatical terminology in English or Hindi, are welcome to join. The workshop will be bilingual – participants are welcome to converse in both Hindi and English; of course, this means that participants are expected to understand academic conversation in both languages, and speakers are asked to speak clearly.

Texts to be read and discussed this time come from the borderlands of Hindi, namely from Panjab, Rajasthan and eastern India. They have been produced in a variety of literary idioms, such as Rajasthani (Marwari), Sant Bhasha (Sadhukkari), Maithili/Brajabuli and Panjabi. Although most of them are now considered as early versions of distinct modern languages, they were to a large extent mutually comprehensible, so much so that at some point of time most of them came to be associated with Hindi.

As last year, it will be open both to auditors who would simply like to listen in without participating and reading participants. Our website is now live, so if you are interested please take a look (you can find the dates, eligibility criteria, and the application form on the site): Eighth Workshop – Online! – Early Hindi & Brajbhasha Workshop (wordpress.com). To apply, please return your application form to earlyhindi2021@gmail.com by 4 July.
If you have any questions, please write to earlyhindi2021@gmail.com.