University Faculty Details Page on DU Web-site

Title Dr. First Name Shonaleeka Last Name Kaul Photograph

Designation Assistant Professor

Department History
Address (Campus) Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Delhi.
(Residence)
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Email [email protected]
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Education
Subject Institution Year Details
B.A. Honours History St. Stephen’s College, DU 1998
M.A. Ancient History Centre for Historical Studies, JNU 2000
M.Phil (Course Work) Ancient History Centre for Historical Studies, JNU 2001
Ph.D Ancient History Centre for Historical Studies, JNU 2005-
06
Career Profile
Organisation / Institution Designation Duration Role
Department of History, DU Assistant Since October 2009 Teaching post graduate students
Professor and supervising M.Phil and Ph. D
(Permanent) research
Miranda House, DU Assistant April 2006-October 2009 Teaching undergraduate students
Professor of the Honours, Programme, and
(Permanent) Interdisciplinary courses
Yale University, USA Visiting September 2007-May 2008 Teaching lecture and seminar
Lecturer courses to undergraduate and
graduate (Ph.D) students
Ramjas College, DU Lecturer (Ad August 2005-April 2006 Teaching undergraduate students
St. Stephens College, DU hoc) July 2004-July 2005 of the Honours, Programme, and
Lady Shri Ram College, DU December-April, 2003-04; December- Interdisciplinary courses
March, 2002-03
Research Interests / Specialization

Area of Specialization : Early Indian History, with special emphasis on exploring urbanism, gender, and behavior
in classical Sanskrit literature. History of Ancient Kashmir.

Areas of Interest/Research : Cultural history, History of ideas, Behavioural history, Literary theory, Cultural
transmission, Regional Studies.

Teaching Experience ( Subjects/Courses Taught)

 Teaching Ancient Indian and World History to M.A. and M. Phil. students in the Department of History,
University of Delhi, starting October 2009.

 Supervising M. Phil. and Ph.D research in ancient Indian history, University of Delhi.

 Taught at Miranda House from April 2006 to October 2009 as a permanent member of the faculty.

 Taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Yale University, USA, in the department of History as
visiting faculty, 2007-08.

 Taught History at St. Stephen’s College, Lady Shri Ram College and Ramjas College, Delhi University,
from Dec. 2002 to April 2006.

Honors & Awards

 Awarded the Jan Gonda Fellowship in Indology at International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden
University, The Netherlands, 23 May to 14 Aug 2014.

 Selected to be the Dinakar Singh Distinguished Visiting Fellow in South Asian Studies in the department
of History at Yale University, USA, 2007-08.

 Awarded the Junior Research Fellowship of the Indian Council of Historical Research, 2003-2004.

 Topped Jawaharlal Nehru University in M.A., 2000.

 Awarded the following by St.Stephen’s College: * Westcott Memorial History Prize 1998 * Sanwa
Foundation-St.Stephen’s College Scholarship for Academic and Extracurricular Excellence 1998 *
Premnath Bhalla Memorial Merit Prize for Academic and Extracurricular Achievement 1997 * Dr.Karni
Singh Memorial Merit Scholarship 1996 * Ranjit Singh Goel Memorial Merit Prize 1996 * Eruch Kapadia
 Memorial Merit Scholarship 1995 * Awarded the Sanskrit Pratibha Puraskar by Delhi Sanskrit Academy
1993.

Publications: Books (LAST FIVE YEARS)

 2014, Cultural History of Early South Asia: A Reader (edited volume), Orient Black Swan, New Delhi.

 2011, International edition, Imagining the Urban: Sanskrit and the City in Early India, Seagull, New York

 2010, Imagining the Urban: Sanskrit and the City in Early India, Permanent Black, Delhi.

Publications In Peer Reviewed Journals (LAST FIVE YEARS)

Year of Publication Title Journal Co-Author

 2015, ‘Early Mathura: Sacred Imagination and Diverse Traditions’, Indian Historical Review,
vol. 42, 1 (June), pp. 1-16.

 2014, ‘Seeing’ the Past: Text and Questions of History in the Rajatarangini’, History and
Theory, 53, 2 (May), pp. 194-211.

 2013, ‘Translation/Transformation: The Rajatarangini’s Journey from Medieval Poetry to

Modern History’, Journal of Contemporary Thought , Special issue on Global South Cultural
Dialogue Project: Translation as Conversation, vol. 38 (Winter), pp. 13-22.

 2013, ‘Kalhana’s Kashmir: Aspects of the Literary Production of Space in the Rajatarangini’,
Indian Historical Review, vol. 40, 2, pp. 207-222.

 2006, ‘Women about Town: An Exploration of the Sanskrit Kavya Tradition’, Studies in
History, 22,1,n.s. 2006: 59-76.

Publications: Others (LAST FIVE YEARS)

Year of Publication Title Journal Co-Author
 2015, ‘South Asia’, in Craig W. Benjamin, ed., Cambridge World History, vol. 4: A World with
States, Empires, and Networks, 1200 BCE-900 CE, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

 2015, ‘Pataliputra’, in Craig W. Benjamin, ed., Cambridge World History, vol. 4: A World with
States, Empires, and Networks, 1200 BCE-900 CE, Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge.

 2015, ‘Of Saffron, Snow, and Spirituality: Glimpses of Cultural Geography in the Rajatarangini’
in HP Ray, ed., Negotiating Cultural Identity: Landscapes in Early Medieval South Asian
 History, Routledge: Delhi.

 2014, ‘Functions and Social Location of Kavya’ in Shonaleeka Kaul, ed., Cultural History of
Early South Asia: A Reader, Orient BlackSwan: Delhi, pp. 298-308.

 2009, ‘Pleasure and Culture: Reading Urban Behaviour through Kavya Archetypes’ in Nayanjot
Lahiri and Upinder Singh, eds., 2009, Ancient India: New Research, Oxford University Press:
New Delhi, pp. 252-79.

 Forthcoming. ‘Kingship in Early Kashmir: New Perspectives from the Rajatarangini’, in

Osmund Boperacchi and Suchandra Ghosh, eds., Indian History and Beyond: Felicitation
volume for B D Chattopadhyaya, Primus Publishers: Delhi.

 Forthcoming. ‘Poetics and the Past: Reconsidering the Problematic of History in Early Kashmir’
in Bhairabi Sahu and Kesavan Veluthat, eds., History and Theory: Essays in Memory of R.S.
Sharma, ICHR and Orient BlackSwan.

 Forthcoming. ‘A World Apart: Historical Transition and Early Indian Literature’ in Kumkum
Roy, ed., Revisiting Transitions, Primus Publishers: Delhi.

 Forthcoming. 'Culture of Desire: Erotics and the City in Early Indian Texts' in Naman Ahuja
and Phyllis Granoff, eds., A Pantheon Rediscovered: Towards a New Understanding of Early
India, Oxford University Press.

 2015, Book Review, Indian History, vol. 2, (January) (Review of Jesse Knutson’s Into the
Twilight of Sanskrit Court Poetry: The Sena Salon of Bengal and Beyond, California University
Press, 2014)

 2015, Book Review, Studies in History, vol. 31, 1 (February) (Review of PK Basant’s The City
and the Country in Early India: A Study of Malwa, Primus Books, 2012).

 2015, ‘Kashmir Coins and History’, Frontline, May 15, (Review of Iqbal Ahmad’s Kashmir Coins,
Dilpreet Publishers, Delhi, 2013.)

 2014, Book Review, International Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 11:1 (January), pp. 102-104
(Review of David Shulman’s More than Real: A History of the Imagination in South India,
Harvard University Press, 2012).

 2013, ‘Pilgrims’ India’, Frontline, vol. 30, issue 10, May 17-30 (Review of Diana Eck’s India: A
Sacred Geography, 2012, Harmony Books, New York)

 2012, Book Review, Indian Economic and Social History Review, vol. 49: 3 (September)
(Review of Yigal Bronner’s Extreme Poetry: The Movement of Simultaneous Narration in South
 Asia, Permanent Black)

 2012, ‘The Imagined Past’, Frontline, vol 29, issue 14, July 14- 27, 2012 (Review of Patrick
Olivelle, Janice Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray, eds., Reimagining Asoka: Memory and
History, Oxford University Press, 2012)

 2011 ‘Old Wine in a New Bottle’, Economic and Political Weekly, July 16, vol. XLVI, No. 29,
p.73. (Review of Nandini Sinha Kapoor, ed., Environmental History of Early India: A Reader,
Oxford University Press)

 2007 ‘The Past at Every Corner’, Economic and Political Weekly, XLII, 35, September 1-7, 2007:
3544-3545 (Review of Upinder Singh’s Delhi: Ancient History)

 2006 ‘Peopling history’, Frontline, vol 23, issue 23, Nov.18-Dec.1, 2006: 72-74. (Review of
Uma Chakravarti’s Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brahmanas of
‘Ancient’ India). Republished as Book Review in Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, 13,3,
September, 2007: 132-139.

Conference/Seminar Presentations

 Manana, The Devahuti Trust, India International Centre, Seminar, Ancient India: New Research, Paper
Presented: ‘Feminine Archetypes in Kavya Literature’, 5 September, 2005.

 St. Stephen’s College, Department of Sanskrit, University of Delhi, Annual Seminar, Gender in Kalidasa,
Paper Presented: ‘Portrayals of the Ganika and Kulastri in the Kavyas’, 5 December, 2006.

 Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, International Seminar, Revisiting Transitions,
‘A World Apart: Historical Transition and Early Indian Literature’, 5-6 March 2007.

 Council of South Asian Studies, Yale University, USA, International Seminar, A Pantheon Rediscovered?:
Towards a New understanding of Early India, Paper Presented: ‘Culture of Desire: Erotics and the City in
Early Indian Texts’, 17-19 April 2008.

 Department of History, University of Delhi, Invitation Lecture, Lecture presented: ‘Sanskrit and the De-
urbanization Debate’, 2 September, 2009.

 Miranda House , Department of English, University of Delhi, International Seminar, Revisiting Kālidāsa’s
Abhijñāna-śākuntalam: Land, Love, Languages: Forms of Exchange in Ancient India, Paper Presented:
‘The Functions and Social Location of the Kavya’, 20-21 January 2010.
 St. Stephen’s College, History Society, Lecture Series, Urban Dialogues in History: Cultural Expressions of
City Life, Lecture On: ‘Kama Culture: The City in Early Indian Literature’, 20-21 Sept. 2010.

 Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Seminar, ‘Sourcing the Story: Archives New
and Archives Anew’, Texts and the Historical Imagination: Panel Discussant, 6-8 October, 2010.

 School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Annual Interdisciplinary Seminar, The
Architectures of Erotica: Political, Social, Ritual, Paper Presented: ‘Sex and the City: Erotic Love in Early
Indian Literature’, 10-13 November, 2010.

 Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti, Workshop on 'Approaching Religion and Caste
Before Colonialism: Six Case Studies, c.130CE - c.1760': Panel Discussant, 28 July, 2012.

 Archive India Institute, First Annual International Conference held in Delhi University, ‘Kingship in Indian
History’: Special Invitee and Respondent, 2 November, 2012.

 Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti, International Conference, ‘Negotiating Space in the
Medieval World: Comparing Early Medieval India, the Islamic heartland and medieval Europe’, Paper
Presented: ‘Kalhana’s Kashmir: Aspects of the Literary Production of Space in the Rajatarangini’, 6-8,
December, 2012.

 Indian Council of Historical Relations, History and Theory: Seminar in Memory of RS Sharma, Paper
Presented: ‘Poetics and the Past: Revisiting Questions of History in the Rajatarangini’, 2-3, September,
2013.

 India International Centre, Lecture Series, Paper presented: ‘Imagined Landscape’: Myth and Memory in
Early Kashmir’, 3 September, 2013.

 Forum on Contemporary Thought, XVI International Conference, Mysore, on Translation, Comparatism

and the Global South, Paper presented: ‘Translating the Past: The Rajatarangini’s Journey from
Medieval Poetry to Modern History’, 15-18 December, 2013.

 Indian Institute of Advanced Study and Centre for Heritage Studies, National seminar at Kochi on
Growth of Knowledge Systems of India: Regional Contributions, Paper Presented: ‘Speaking of Matters
Past’: Kavya and the Problematic of History in Early Kashmir’, 3-5 February, 2014.
  University of Delhi, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, International Seminar on Asiatick Society, Indology,
and Indologists in the Nineteenth Century, Paper presented: ‘Early Indological Readings of Kalhana’s
Rajatarangini’, 21-23 February, 2014.

 Freie University, Berlin, International Seminar In Honour of Herbert Hartel: Workshop in Preparation of
a bilateral project on position of Mathura in the formation of Religious Image Types, Paper presented:
‘Early Mathura: Sacred Imagination and Diverse Traditions’, 11-13 April, 2014.

 University of Rome, Invitation lecture, ‘Goddesses of Early Kashmir’, 10 June, 2014.

 Centre d’ etudes- Inde Asie du Sud (Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies), CNRS, Paris, Invitation
Lecture, ‘Revisiting Historiographical Traditions in Early Kashmir’, 17 June, 2014.

 Mondes Iranien et Indien, (Institute of Multidisciplinary Research in the Indian and Iranian World),
EPHE, University of Sorbonne, Paris, Invitation Lecture, ‘Myth and Memory in Early Kashmir’, 18 June,
2014.

 Centre de recherche sur l’Extrême-Orient, University of Paris-Sorbonne, Invitation Lecture,

‘Sacred Geography of Early Kashmir’, 19 June, 2014.

 Lady Sri Ram College, University of Delhi, Invitation Lecture, ‘Is the Rajatarangini History? Reconsidering
Kalhana’s Epic Poem’, 31 October, 2014.

 Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Invitation Lecture, ‘Revisiting the
Rajatarangini: The Problematic of History in Early Kashmir’, 5 November, 2014.

 Department of History and Culture, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi, National Seminar organized
by UGC DRS-SAP on Literary Cultures and History in South Asia, paper presented ‘Metapoetry and
History in Early Medieval Kashmir’, March 11-12, 2015.

 16th World Sanskrit Conference, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, and International Association of
Sanskrit Studies, Paper to be presented ‘Early Indological Readings of Kalhana’s Rajatarangini: The
Problematic of History’, 28 June-2 July, 2015.

Total Publication Profile optional

Books 02 (3 editions)

In Peer Reviewed Journals 05

Articles 10

Conference/Seminar Presentations 26

Public Service / University Service / Consulting Activity

 Served as Resident Tutor, Meghdoot Hostel for Post Graduate Women Students, University of Delhi, from
January 2010 to June 2012.

 Formulated recommendations as university expert for revision of the ICSE's classes IX to XII History
syllabi, February 2007.

 Serving on the Committee of Courses, the Departmental Research Committee, the Library Committee,
and Anti-Ragging Committee, Dept of History, since October 2009.

 Wrote seven e-lessons on ancient Indian history for the Union Human Resource Development
Ministry’s National Mission for Education-Institute of Life-Long Learning project in September 2009 -
January 2010.

 Wrote a unit ‘Cities in Texts’ for the post graduate course on Urbanization being developed and
introduced by Department of History, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi, in October 2011.

 Wrote lessons on 'Post Mauryan Patterns: Political, Economic, Social and Cultural' for Delhi
University's School of Distance Learning's course material for BA Programme students of History in
2006.

Professional Societies Memberships

 Editor, Indian History, Annual Peer reviewed Journal of the Archives India Institute.

Other Details