Curriculum Vitae Navpreet Singh

SHORT PROFILE

Navpreet Singh obtained his first MA in Indian History at the Punjab University, Chandigarh. He then completed his second MA in Asian Studies (track History, Philology & Religion) at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris. At EPHE, the MA dissertation for his first year (M1) was titled Le Fan fanyu 翻梵語, Un glossaire de termes bouddhiques du VIe siècle (“The Fan fanyu 翻梵語 – A Sanskrit-Chinese Glossary from the 6th century”) where he undertook a preliminary study of this text addressing issues of authorship and dating, in addition to a study of its chapter 18. His MA dissertation for the second year (M2) was titled Le Fo benxing ji jing 佛本行集經, Une hagiographie négligée du Buddha Śākyamuni, Revue de la littérature secondaire, traduction et analyse du chapitre V (“The Fo benxing ji jing 佛本行集經 – A Neglected Hagiography of Śākyamuni Buddha: literature review, translation and preliminary study of chapter 5”).

Mr. Singh is currently pursuing a PhD at LMU within the framework of a doctoral school in cross-cultural philology, the IDK-Philologie. His dissertation focuses on the development and transmission of a scriptural family known as the Avalokita-sūtra contained within the Mahāvastu (c. I-IV/V cent. CE). This textual family is of great relevance for the history of the conception of the Buddha’s Awakening and the cult of his substitutes (particularly the stūpa) in South Asia.

EDUCATION

• 2021-2025 : Masters, École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) - École Française d’Extrême Orient (EFEO) - Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL), Paris

Title: Masters in Asian Studies - track History, Philology & Religion
Supervisor: Costantino Moretti (EFEO) Total ECTS: 120
- M1 Thesis: Le Fan fanyu 翻梵語, Un glossaire de termes bouddhiques du VIe siècle (preliminary study, authorship, dating and detailed study of chapter 18).
- M2 Thesis: Le Fo benxing ji jing 佛本⾏集經, Une hagiographie négligée du Buddha Śākyamuni, Revue de la littérature secondaire, traduction et analyse du chapitre V (literature review, study of the text, translation of chapter V and comparison with other hagiographical-biographical literature).

• 2023-2024 : Diploma in Tibetan language, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), Paris (worth 30 ECTS)

• 2022-2023 : Exchange Year, University of Naples L’Orientale, Naples

Completed courses on basic and intermediate Sanskrit, as well basic Tibetan. Worked on manuscripts and acquired philological traning with Francesco Sferra, an important sanskritist and philologist of our time. Studied fundamentals of Indian Art with a leading art historian, Anna Filigenzi.

• 2019-2021 : Masters, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Masters in Indian History - focus Islamic period & Modern History
Successfully completed with the distinction “First Division” (Indian grading). No thesis.

• 2017-2019 : Chinese Language Program, Tsinghua University, Beijing

Completed 1080 hours of Chinese language curriculum (3 semesters).

• 2013-2017 : Bachelor in Computer Engineering, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Graduated with a Cumulative Grade Point of 7.80/10.00 at the end of 4 years.

• 2012-2013 : Class XII (~Baccalaureate), Army Public School, Lucknow

Overall final marks / percentage: 91 %.

Languages

 Modern

• English (Fluent)

• Hindi (Native)

• Punjabi (Native)

• French (Advanced)

• Italian (Intermediate)

• Mandarin Chinese (Advanced intermediate)

• Modern Tibetan (Pre-intermediate)

• Persian (Pre-intermediate)

•  Urdu (Intermediate)

• German (Beginner)

  Classical

• Buddhist Chinese (Advanced)

• Sanskrit (Advanced)

• Tibetan (Advanced intermediate)

• Prakrit & Pali (Beginner)

• Sant Bhāṣā [Braj, Old Hindi, Old Punjabi] (Intermediate)

SUMMER/ WINTER SCHOOLS

• 2025 (July) : Sanskrit Summer School, University of Aix-Marseille, Aix

The aim of this intensive summer school was to acquire advanced proficiency in Sanskrit.

• 2024 : Winter School in Buddhist Textual Scholarship, EPHE-EFEO-LMU, Chiangmai

The aim of this intensive week was to acquire a sound theoretical and practical knowledge of the study of the primary sources of Buddhism, both manuscript and epigraphic. The course covered a number of disciplines, including philology, codicology, archaeology, epigraphy and the history of Buddhism and Buddhist art.

PUBLICATIONS

• 2024 : Descriptive Catalogue Entries, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Paris

Successfully published detailed descriptions of eight manuscripts in Gurmukhī script preserved at the BnF (Indien 692, 693, 694, 756, 759, 866, 874, 975). Acquired throughout the 19th century, these manuscripts had never been the subject of a proper identification and description. The identification of the texts and the preliminary research were carried out and the results were presented during a public session entitled “Présentation des manuscrits du Pendjab de la Bibliothèque nationale de France”, during which the manuscripts were displayed. The entries have been published in the online catalogue BnF Archives et manuscrits.

• Forthcoming : Descriptive Catalogue Entry, Collège de France, Paris

Currently engaged in the preparation of a catalogue entry of a Buddhist manuscript from Nepal, preserved at the Collège de France. This entry, which includes a detailed description of the manuscript and its contents, aims to facilitate its accurate identification, as the manuscript has until now been incorrectly catalogued.

• Forthcoming : Article “Maitreya’s Yūpa at Dunhuang: Transformation of Iconography and Intricacies of Translations”

The article questions the existing views of scholars regarding the interpretation of Maitreya’s Yūpa as depicted in the Dunhuang murals and brings to light its many unidentified iconographical features. It also deals with the intricacies of translations within the Buddhist world and how they impacted art depictions, and vice-versa.

PARTICIPATION IN COLLECTIVE RESEARCH PROGRAMS

• 2024 : Dunhuang Manuscript Papers: Morphological Data on 1000 Manuscripts from the “Pelliot Chinois” Collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), SCRIPTA-PSL-EPHE-EFEO, Paris

This database is a digital tool created for studying the relationship between production, organization, and dissemination of writings in Medieval China, through the analysis of the characteristics of manuscripts’ material support and, more specifically, of a substantial corpus of manuscripts containing different types of texts. As part of this project, I was responsible for classifying the texts found in a corpus of approximately 500 manuscripts from Dunhuang.