Dr McComas Taylor

Senior Lecturer, School of Culture, History & Language

Email: mccomas.taylor@anu.edu.au
Phone: + 61 2 6125 3179
Room: e424 Baldessin Precinct Building

Research interests

The construction of truth in the Sanskritic episteme; the ideas of social division in Sanskrit narrative literature.

Key publications

• 2007. The Fall of the Indigo Jackal: The Discourse of Division in Purnabhadra's Pancatantra (SUNY Press, June 2007)
• Forthcoming in 2012. 'Empowering the Sacred: How a text creates discourse in a contemporary oral performance of the Bhāgavatapuāṇa' In. Orality and Literacy: Composition and Performance: Brill. (accepted 8 February 2011) . Read draft online.
• 2011. 'Purnabhadra's Pancatantra: Jaina tales or Brahmanical outsourcing?' International Journal of Jaina Studies 7(1): 1-17. Read online
• 2011. 'Mythology Wars: The Indian Diaspora, 'Wendy's Children' and the Struggle for the Hindu Past'. Asian Studies Review (accepted 4 Nov 2010). Read draft online
• Under review. 'Mountain god and sacred text: Power-sharing and cultural synthesis in a Garhwal community'. Asian Ethnology. Read draft online
• Under review. 'Radhe, Radhe! -- Continuity and change in the contemporary oral performance of the Bhāgavatapuāṇa. Religions of South Asia. Read draft online
• Under review. 'Textual strategies, empowerment and 'true' discourse in the Bhāgavatapuāṇa'. DICSEP 5. Read draft version
• 2010. Indian idol: Narrating the story of Krishna in Globalising contexts. Report to POSCO TJ Park Foundation. Read online
• 2009 with Beckmann. E.. 'Skilful methods can achieve what power cannot': Flexible Delivery of Sanskrit at the Australian National University as a Model for Small-enrolment Languages. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 6(1): 245--253. Read online
• 2008. 'What enables canonical literature to function as 'true'? The case of the Hindu puranas'. International Journal of Hindu Studies 12(3): 309-328. Read online
• 2008. 'This is the truth, the truth without doubt': Textual authority and the enabling of 'true' discourse in the Hindu narrative tradition of the Sivapurana. Religions of South Asia 2.1: 65-82. Read online
• 2007. "Perfumed by golden lotuses: literary place and textual authority in the Brahma- and BBhāgavatapuāṇa". Acta Orientalia Vilnensia 8(1): 69-81. Read online
• 1996 with Lama Choedak Yuthok (translators). The Clear Mirror: A Traditional Account of Tibet's Golden Age. Snow Lion. Order online