The manuscripts and objects on display in the Rosenwald Gallery of the Van Pelt Library were selected to illustrate the intimate relationship between time and doctrine in three of the great religious traditions of South Asia: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. How do the religious traditions of South Asia conceptualize time? How do these notions of time shape their social institutions and cultural practices? Each text from the various traditions of South and Southeast Asia reflects a particular facet of time: the measurement of time, the understanding of time, the interpretation of time, the use of time, the control of time, even timelessness itself. The exhibit dramatically evokes the extent to which perceptions of time are deeply rooted in cultural traditions.
Part of the Penn Humanities Forum on Time
The Kalpa System of Time
Opening lecture by Professor David Pingree
Wednesday, 16 January 2002 - 5:30pm—7:00pm
Rosenwald Gallery, Van Pelt Library 6th Floor, 3420 Walnut Street
To inaugurate the Indic Manuscripts Exhibition at the Van Pelt Library, Destiny and Design, David Pingree, the distinguished Old World scholar, Professor of Classics, and chair of the department of the History of Mathematics at Brown University, will present a discussion of the Kalpa system of time. For more information.
The Penn Humanities Forum is pleased to cosponsor this event with the University of Pennsylvania Library.
