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Chiara Policardi





Chiara PolicardiChiara Policardi holds a Ph.D. in Indology and Sanskrit. After graduating in Classics from Università degli Studi di Milano, she earned the Ph.D. from Sapienza Università  di Roma, under the supervision of Prof. Raffaele Torella. Her Ph.D. research continues and expands the studies conducted already for her M.A. thesis (Le yoginī: teriomorfismo e trasformazione spirituale. Il Kaulajñānanirṇaya). Her Ph.D. work deals with yoginīs of medieval Ṣaiva traditions, investigating, in particular, the peculiar therianthropic representation of these figures, which usually combines an animal face with a feminine body. The Ph.D. dissertation, titled Of Deities and Animals. Therianthropic Yoginīs in Pre-modern Śaiva Traditions, relies on both textual sources and iconographic evidence, and examines simultaneously the two typologies of sources in the attempt to reconstruct the phenomenon in its complexity. The research identifies three main lines of interpretation of yoginīs' animal traits, which can be summarised as: metamorphic ability and supernatural powers (siddhis); liminality, wilderness, and otherness; imitation of animals, possession, and idea of an animal "mask". These themes, which can be investigated in their multiple ramifications, trace some of her specific research interests. The issue of therianthropy is of significance in the broader Hindu religious landscape as well, where the yoginīs represent only a tessera, although singular, of a wide and motley mosaic. Her domain of study includes thus, more in general, the animal forms in the representation of the divine in classical and medieval India. Theriomorphic forms find expression both in deities of composite, human-animal appearances, and in the category of vāhanas, the vehicles of the gods. In a still wider horizon, her field of research concerns the important and multifaceted role of animals in Hindu culture. In 2016, in collaboration with Prof. Malgorzata Sacha of Cracow University, Visiting Professor at Sapienza, she taught the workshop series "Animal symbolism in religious imagery with special reference to the Near East and the Indian subcontinent", at Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali - Sapienza, University of Rome. From the academic year 2017/2018 she teaches the workshop series "Indian Aesthetics through textual sources" at Università degli Studi di Milano. At the same university, from 2020, she is a post-doctoral fellow with a project on the rise of therianthropic deities in Gupta India. In 2020 she published the monograph Divino, femminile, animale. Yoginī teriantropiche nell’India antica e medioevale (Alessandria, Edizioni dell’Orso).


Education



2013-2017:
Ph.D. scholarship in Civilizations of Asia and Africa, Indian Subcontinent curriculum, Sapienza Università  di Roma (Supervisor: Prof. Raffaele Torella).
Title: Of Deities and Animals. Therianthropic Yoginīs in Pre-modern Śaiva Traditions.
Examining committee: Prof. Antonio Rigopoulos (Università  Ca' Foscari Venezia), Prof. Francesco Sferra (Università  degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"), Prof. Giacomella Orofino (Università  degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale").
The thesis received the award by Italian Association for Sanskrit Studies [Associazione Italiana di Studi Sanscriti – AISS] for the best indological doctoral thesis in Italian universities in the triennium 2016-2018.

2013:
M.A. in Classics [Filologia, letteratura e storia dell'antichità ], Università  degli Studi di Milano, with a thesis in Sanskrit language and literature (Supervisor: Prof. Cinzia Pieruccini; Co-supervisor: Prof. Giuliano Boccali).
Title: Le yoginī: teriomorfismo e trasformazione spirituale. Il Kaulajñānanirṇaya.
The thesis received a degree award by YANI - Yoga Associazione Nazionale Insegnanti - for the best thesis on topics related to yoga.

2010:
B.A. in Classics [Scienze storiche e archeologiche dell'antichità], Università  degli Studi di Milano, with a thesis in Sanskrit language and literature (Supervisor: Prof. Cinzia Pieruccini).
Title: Le radici ancestrali del culto delle yoginī.



Works

  • 2023. “Le yoginī in tradizioni śivaite antiche e medievali: seduzione, pericolo e trasformazione”, in G. Boccali–M. Sacha–R. Torella (a cura di), Eros, passioni, emozioni nella civiltà dell’India, Roma: Carocci, pp. 199-221.
  • 2023. “Variations on the Elephantine Theme: Jyeṣṭhā-Vināyakī, from Independent Goddess to Gaṇeśa’s Female Form”, in T. Pontillo–E. Poddighe (eds.), Resisting and Justifying Changes II. Justifying Changes and Legitimizing Innovation in Indian and Ancient Greek Culture. Supplementum to Studi Classici e Orientali, Pisa: Pisa University Press, pp. 223-264.
  • 2022. “Female Gaṇeśa or Independent Deity? Tracing the Background of the Elephant-faced Goddess in Mediaeval Śaiva Tantric Traditions”, in A. Acri–P. Rosati (eds.), Tantra, Magic, and Vernacular Religions in Monsoon Asia. Texts, Practices, and Practitioners from the Margins, London: Routledge, pp. 78-97.
  • 2022. “Divinités féminines hindoues, puissances qui traversent les siècles dans le mythe et dans l’art: Durgā tuant le démon-buffle et Lakṣmī aux éléphants”, in L. Giuliano (éd.), Inde, reflets de mondes sacrés, Catalogue de l'exposition de 2022, “Inde. Reflets de mondes sacrés” au Château des ducs de Bretagne en collaboration avec le Museo delle Civiltà de Rome, Nantes: Editions du château, pp. 90-105.
  • 2022. “Divinités aux formes animals dans les religions et les arts hindous, bouddhistes et jaïns”, in L. Giuliano (éd.), Inde, reflets de mondes sacrés, Catalogue de l'exposition de 2022, “Inde. Reflets de mondes sacrés” au Château des ducs de Bretagne en collaboration avec le Museo delle Civiltà de Rome, Nantes: Editions du château, pp. 256-269. - 2020. Divino, femminile, animale. Yoginī teriantropiche nell’India antica e medioevale, Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.
  • 2020. Divino, femminile, animale. Yoginī teriantropiche nell’India antica e medioevale, Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.
  • 2020. “La dinastia Kalacuri e il tempio delle 81 dee di Bherāghāṭ”, Kervan – International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies, 24/2, pp. 321-358.
  • 2019. “Theriocephalic Yoginīs in Śaiva Tantric Traditions: An Animal Mask?”, Indologica Taurinensia, vol. XLV, pp. 87-126.
  • 2018. “The Case of the Yakṣiṇī Aśvamukhī: Remarks Between Jātaka and Art”, Rivista degli Studi Orientali, Nuova Serie, vol. XCI, pp. 137-160.
  • 2018. Con D. Feller, “Classes of Beings”, Oxford Bibliographies Online. Hinduism, Oxford University Press.
  • 2017. Con A. Crisanti, C. Pieruccini, P. M. Rossi, a cura di: Anantaratnaprabhava. Studi in onore di Giuliano Boccali, Università degli Studi di Milano–Dipartimento di Studi letterari, filologici e linguistici, Ledizioni (Consonanze, 11), Milano.
  • 2016. “Therianthropic Yoginīs in Early Śaiva Tradition”, Rivista degli Studi Orientali, Supplemento n° 2, vol. LXXXIX, pp. 119-154.
  • 2015. “L'agire delle yoginī: teriomorfismo, potere e ambivalenza”, in P. Piro–P. Chierichetti (a cura di), Agire o non agire? Strategie di pensiero/azione in Oriente e Occidente, Edizioni Unicopli, Milano, pp. 139-161.
  • 2014. “Mastering Oneself, Meeting the Otherness: The Vīra in the Early Tantric Yoginī Cult”, Indologica Taurinensia, vol. XL, ed. by Tiziana Pontillo, pp. 217-239.