The Cult of Jagannatha and the Regional Tradition of Orissa

Prof. Gaya Charan Tripath, born at Agra in 1939 in a family of traditional Sanskrit scholars; studies at Agra, Moradabad, Pune, Varanasi, Freiburg; M.A. Sanskrit, Agra 1959; Ph.D. on Vedic deties, Agra 1962; German Academic Exchange Service Fellow to the University of Freiburg 1962-66; Dr. Phil. Freiburg 1966; D. Litt. In Ancient Indian History, Allahabad 1986. Taught at the Universities of Freiburg (twice), Aligarh, Udaipur; Principal, G.N. Jha Research Institute (Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapitha), Allahabad 1977-2001; Visiting Professor to the Universities of Heidelberg, Tubingen (twice), British Columbia of Vancouver (twice), Berlin, Leipzig. Presently Professor at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Head of its Kalakosha Division.

Hermann Kulke is Professor of South and Southeast Asian History in the Department of History, Kiel University. For 21 years he taught at the Southasia Institute of Heiderberg University. He was founder-member of the Orissa Research Project of the Southasia Institute (1970-5), Visiting Professor at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar (1978/9), Asiatic Society, Calcutta (1986) and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (1992). He is the author of Cidambaramahatmya (1970), Jagannatha Cult and Gajapaati Kingship (1979 both in German), co-author of A History of India (1986, with D. Rothermund), co-editor of The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional Tradition of Orissa (1978, with A. Eschmann and G.C. Tripathi) and of Hinduism Reconsidered (1989, 2nd ed. 1997), with G.D. Sontheimer) and editor of The State in India 1000-1600 (1993).