David Pierdominici
David Pierdominici holds a Ph.D. in Civilisations of Asia and Africa (XXX cycle, Indian subcontinent curriculum). After graduating in Classics at Milan State University, he earned the Ph.D. from Sapienza University of Rome, under the guidance of Professor Raffaele Torella and Professor Lidia Sudyka (Jagiellonian University, Cracow).His doctoral dissertation, entitled “The Somavallīyogānandaprahasana of Aruṇagirinā-tha Ḍiṇḍimakavi”, presents the first critical edition - alongside with English translation and commentary - of a theatrical farce supposedly composed during the 15th century Vijayanagara. Apart from the comic literature, his main research interests include manuscriptology, the South Indian Sanskrit production, especially connected to Vijayanagara and Nāyaka and Maratha Thanjavur, and the Pāṇḍya dynasty.
From October 2018 to April 2019 he was Gonda Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IAAS), Leiden, The Netherlands.
Since November 2019 he is post-doc researcher at the Jagiellonian University (Kraków) with a project entitled “The Fish on Mount Meru”: regionalism and Sanskrit cosmopolis in Pāṇḍya identity and dynastic auto-perception from the Caṅkam era to the 17th century” and financed by the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki).
Education
2014-2017
Ph.D. scholarship in Civilisations of Asia and Africa at Sapienza University of Rome, Indian subcontinent curriculum (Supervisors: Professor Raffaele Torella - Professor Lidia Sudyka).
Title: "The Somavallīyogānandaprahasana of Aruṇagirinātha Ḍiṇḍimakavi: critical text, translation and study".
Examining committee: Professor Tiziana Pontillo (Cagliari University), Professor Marco Franceschini (Bologna University), Professor Gianni Pellegrini (Turin University).
2014
M.A. in Classics [Filologia, letterature e storia dell'antichità ] at Milan State University, with a thesis in Sanskrit language and literature (Supervisor: Professor Cinzia Pieruccini; Co-Supervisor: Professor Giuliano Boccali).
Title: "Il Mattavilāsaprahasana di Mahendravarman I Pallava".
2011
B.A. in Classics [Scienze dell'antichità ] at Milan State University, with a thesis in Sanskrit language and literature (Supervisor: Professor Cinzia Pieruccini).
Title: : “Śānta e śṛṅgārarasa nella rappresentazione letteraria dell’eremo ascetico”.
Publications
- “Singing a(n) (a)laukika body: a note on the theorization of utprekṣā and its application in Pāṇḍyakulodayamahākāvya”, in Cracow Indological Studies, 2020 (forthcoming)
- “Poets at the service of the Empire: identity and self-representation of the Ḍiṇḍima family” (forthcoming)
- “Clouds in jail: natural symbolism, divine power and royal supremacy in Maṇḍalakavi’s Pāṇḍyakulodaya”, Prague (forthcoming)
- “Through the eyes of warrior, traveller and poet: Portugal, Malabar and Indian traditions as seen by Luís Vaz de Camões (Os Lusíadas VII, 17-67)”, in Cracow Indological Studies XXI, no.1, 2019.
- “The painful journey through existences: cycles of rebirths and satire in Vādirāja’s Yaśodharacarita”, in Journeys and Travellers in Indian Literature and Art, ed. by D. Stasik and A. Trynkowska, vol. I: Sanskrit and Pali Sources, Warsaw, 2018, pp.161-172.
- “Mistreated Vasanta: comical degradation of ritual in the Hāsyārṇavaprahasana”, in Cracow Indological Studies, vol. XIX, no. 2, Part I, 2017, pp. 61-78.
- “Mattavilāsa-prahasana: new perspectives of study”, in Rivista degli Studi Orientali, vol. LXXXIX, 2016, pp. 93-106.
- “Humor, baroque and nature: the image of the dawn in the Somavallīyogānandaprahasana”, in Pandanus '15. Nature in Literature, Art, Myth and Ritual, Vol. 9, no 2, 2015, pp. 29-42.
- “The kavi as a warrior: the poetic fight between Aruṇagirinātha Ḍiṇḍima and Ṣrīnātha as an image of literary changes in 15th century Vijayanagara”, in Indologica Taurinensia, vol. XL, Proceedings of the Conference "Patterns of Bravery. The Figure of the Hero in Indian Literature, Art and Thought", Cagliari, 14th-16th May 2015, ed. by Tiziana Pontillo, 2014 (2016), pp. 205-216.