eCSL Translators

(in alphabetical order)

Alex Cherniak

Alexander Cherniak received a BA in linguistics, philology, and history, and an MA in Asian Studies (specializing in South Asia) from St. Petersburg State University. He is currently Lecturer in Hindi at the University of Haifa and Lecturer in Sanskrit at the Tel Aviv University. His research interests are the languages and literatures of South Asia (and beyond).

Linda Covill

Linda loves the challenges facing the literary translator, striving to find the best balance between fidelity to the original text and a musical and readable English. Her early grounding in English literature proved unexpectedly useful when tracing the themes and metaphors presented in Sanskrit literature, especially in those texts, such as Handsome Nanda, which convey Buddhist ideals.

Linda completed her BA in English Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand and her MA in Indian Religions at King’s College London. She learnt Sanskrit at the University of Oxford and completed her DPhil there in 2006 under the guidance of Richard Gombrich. Linda translated and edited Sanskrit literature for the Clay Sanskrit Library and has also worked on other publications in the field of Buddhist Studies. She is based in Oxford, works in IT and is a member of Wolfson College.

Translated Volume scheduled for publication.

Kate Crosby

Kate Crosby is Professor of Buddhist Studies in the department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s College, London. She previously held posts at the universities of Edinburgh, Lancaster, Cardiff and SOAS, London, as well as visiting posts at the Buddhist Institute, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; McGill in Montreal and Dongguk University, S. Korea. She was educated at the universities of Oxford, Hamburg and Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, where she was a Commonwealth scholar. She works on Sanskrit, Pali and Pali-vernacular literature, and on Theravada practice in the pre-modern and modern periods. She has conducted fieldwork in most Theravada countries and particularly enjoys the opportunities she has had to collaborate with local and traditional scholars. She developed her fondness for the Mahābhārata after studying it with the late Prof. Bimal Matilal at All Soul’s, Oxford, in the 1980s. In addition to her volume for the Clay Sanskrit Library, The Dead of Night & the Women, 2009, she has authored the following books: Santideva’s Bodhicaryavatara: Buddhist Path to Awakening, Oxford University Press 1995, with Andrew Skilton; Traditional Theravada Meditation and its Modern Era Suppression, Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong 2013; and Theravada Buddhism: Continuity, Diversity, Identity, Blackwell-Wiley, 2014.

Michael Coulson

Michael Coulson (1936-1975) taught Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of Sanskrit: an Introduction to the Classical Language; Three Sanskrit plays, translated with an introduction; and Complete Sanskrit.

Translated Volume scheduled for publication.

Wendy Doniger

Wendy Doniger [O’Flaherty] (B.A. Radcliffe, summa cum laude, Ph. D., Harvard University; D. Phil., Oxford University) is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School and in the Department of South Asian Languages and Literatures and on the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. In 1984 she was elected President of the American Academy of Religion, in 1989 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1996 a Member of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1997 President of the Association for Asian Studies. (She is the only person to have been President of both the AAR and the AAS.) She has published many translations of Sanskrit texts as well as books about Hindu mythology and cross-cultural mythology, most recently The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was; The Hindus: An Alternative History; On Hinduism; Hinduism in the Norton Anthology of World Religions; and The Ring of Truth, and Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry.

Oliver Fallon

Oliver Fallon studied Sanskrit at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

He is a poet and scholar based in London. He is currently working on the poetry of the Mahābhārata.

Friedhelm Hardy

Friedhelm Ernst Hardy (1943-2004), was Professor of Indian Religions at King’s College London. He was a linguist familiar with both classical and modern Indian languages, described in his obituary as “unrivalled in this country and possibly anywhere in the world today.” He is the author of two prominent works, The Religious Culture of India: Power, Love and Wisdom; and Viraha-Bhakti: The Early History of Kṛṣṇa Devotion in South India. He was also the editor of a general companion to Indian religion, The World’s Religions: the Religions of Asia (1990).

He translated the Seven Hundred Elegant Verses by Govardhana in the Clay Sanskrit Library (vol. 55).

Translated Volume scheduled for publication.

William J. Johnson

Will Johnson was Reader in Indian Religions at Cardiff University, where he was founder-editor of the electronic journal, Asian Literature and Translation. His publications include three translations from the Sanskrit for Oxford World’s Classics: The Bhagavad Gita; The Sauptikaparvan of the Mahābhārata; and Kālidāsa’s The Recognition of Śakuntalā. He published a monograph on early Jainism: Harmless Souls; and A Dictionary of Hinduism (OUP). Since retirement, he has spent most of his time reading and writing poetry, some of it India-related.

Translated Volume scheduled for publication.

Matthew Kapstein

Matthew Kapstein received an A.B. in Sanskrit from the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Brown University, Providence (Dissertation Topic: Self and Personal Identity in Indian Buddhist Scholasticism: A Philosophical Investigation). He is currently Directeur d’études, Vème Section, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, as well as Numata Visiting Professor, The Divinity School, the University of Chicago.

Justin Meiland

Justin Meiland took Moderations in Classics at Oxford University. He received a BA in Sanskrit and Pali from Oxford University, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, and a DPhil from Oxford University in Sanskrit and Pali literature (specifically the Sanskrit epics and Pali Jātakas). In 2004–2008 he was lecturer on the PhD Programme in Buddhist Studies at Mahidol University, Bangkok. He is currently barrister in civil law.

Patrick Olivelle

Patrick Olivelle received a B.A. (Honours) in 1972 from the University of Oxford, where he studied Sanskrit, Pali and Indian Religions with Thomas Burrow and R.C. Zaehner. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974 for a thesis containing the critical edition and translation of Yādava Prakāśa’s Yatidharmaprakāśa. He is Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit and Indian Religions at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as the Chair of the Department of Asian Studies from 1994 to 2007. Previously, he taught in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, from 1974 to 1991, where he was the Department Chair 1984-90.

His research focuses on the ancient Indian legal tradition of Dharmaśāstra. He has edited and translated the four early Dharmasūtras. He has also prepared a critical edition of the Law Code of Manu (Mānava Dharmaśāstra). A new translation based on the critically edited text was published in 2004 in the Oxford World’s Classics series and the critical edition was published in 2005.

He also worked on the late Vedic literature, producing an award-winning translation of the early Upaniṣads, as well as a scholar’s edition of them. His early work was focused on the ascetic and monastic traditions of India. He published several editions, translations, and studies of ascetic texts and institutions. He has won several prestigious fellowships, including Guggenheim, NEH, and ACLS. He was elected Vice President of the American Oriental Society in 2004 and President in 2005. He translated the Five Discourses on Worldly Wisdom by Viṣṇuśarman and Life of the Buddha by Aśvaghoṣa in the CSL (vol. 19 and vol. 33).

Translated Volume scheduled for publication.

Vaughan Pilikian

Vaughan Pilikian translated and edited Sanskrit literature for the JJC Foundation, co-publishers (with NYU Press) of the Clay Sanskrit Library. MA (Cantab) in Classics 1996; MPhil (Oxon) Sanskrit 2001; Frank Knox Scholar (Harvard) 2001-3. Poetry: At Eclipse (2002). Films: Actaeon (2003), Mummers (2003) and The Curse Map (2004).

Lee Siegel

Lee Siegel received his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967, his M.F.A. from Columbia University in 1969, and his Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University in 1975.

He was an instructor in the Department of English at Western Washington University from 1969-72. Since 1976, he has been a professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Hawaii. He has also been the Resident Director for the University of Hawaii Study Abroad Center (Paris 2002, 2004, 2006; Seville 2005). More Info.

Translated Volume scheduled for publication.

Andrew Skilton

Andrew Skilton is a Senior Research Fellow in Buddhist Studies at King’s College London. Before that he was Senior Lecturer in Indian Religions, University of Cardiff, and has taught at SOAS, and McGill University. He also teaches Pali at the University of Oxford and edits the journal Contemporary Buddhism. His research interests include Buddhist literature and manuscripts and he continues to work on the Mahāyāna Buddhist text the Samādhirāja Sūtra. He also works on a major project to conserve and promote access to Buddhist manuscripts in Thailand, and is pursuing research into the pre-reform meditation practices of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia.

Alexander Wynne

Alexander Wynne is Lecturer in Buddhist Studies at Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.