📢 Join us for our next High Gravity Talk with Peter Adamson (LMU), titled "Written in the Stars? The Philosophical Defense of Astrology", on Nov 12, 2026, 4-6pm. For more info and to register for a FREE ticket, see our event page. 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/writte... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢 The ASTRA Working Group "Euclid Beyond the Mediterranean" has issued a Call for Proposals for chapters for a book on the reception and translation of Euclidean geometry across Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Check our webpage for the full call. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/research/pro...

📢 The ASTRA Working Group "Euclid Beyond the Mediterranean" has issued a Call for Proposals for chapters for a book on the reception and translation of Euclidean geometry across Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Check our webpage for the full call. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/research/pro...

📢 Join us next week, Oct 9, 2026, 14:00-15:30, for Matthew Kapstein's talk "Lost in Translation: The Five Paths of the Emergence of Sound" (online/in-person) in the ASTRA colloquium series organized by Luigi Rogora. Zoom link available on the event page. 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/lost-t...

Today we are saying goodbye to Ekaterina Sobkovyak. During her six-month fellowship with ASTRA, Katya has been a vital and vibrant member. In July she organized the two-day workshop "Managing Astral Knowledge in Mongolian Society" www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/esobk...

Postdoctoral Scholar Jacob Schmidt-Madsen in conversation with Adrija Roychowdhury for @indianexpress.com They discuss the cultural history of the #BoardGame "Snakes and Ladders," its spiritual origins in India, and appropriation by Europeans. 🎲 🔗 tinyurl.com/ydrh6nz3 #HistSci #AstralSciences

Snakes and Ladders began as a spiritual game in India. How the British transformed it

From religious diagrams of the universe to a children's classic, cultural historian Jacob Schmidt-Madsen traces the journey of Gyan Chaupar and the making of modern Snakes and Ladders.

tinyurl.com

📢 In this session of “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I asked Maria Avxentevskaya about her approach to studying the history of science. Read the full interview below: 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

The latest “Our Stories”—ASTRA’s own feature story series—is out now! “Making Love under the Stars: How Medieval Indian Astrology Predicted Gender and Sexual Diversity” Read the full story here: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

Alumna Journalist in Residence at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Adrija Roychowdhury interviewed Jacob Schmidt-Madsen about Snakes and Ladders and his new book “The Game of Knowledge” (Primus Books) for Indian Express. 🔗 indianexpress.com/article/rese... @mpiwg.bsky.social

Snakes and Ladders began as a spiritual game in India. How the British transformed it

From religious diagrams of the universe to a children's classic, cultural historian Jacob Schmidt-Madsen traces the journey of Gyan Chaupar and the making of modern Snakes and Ladders.

indianexpress.com

📢 Publication alert! ASTRA Postdoctoral Scholar Jacob Schmidt-Madsen recently published his book "The Game of Knowledge: Playing at Spiritual Liberation in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Western India". 🔗 Check the link below for more information! primusbooks.com/product/the-...

Robert Middeke-Conlin has recently joined ASTRA as a Postdoctoral Scholar. Robert is an historian of knowledge whose work concentrates on knowledge production, acquisition, and change in the ancient world. Read more about Robert and his research here: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/rmidd...

Arun Asokan joined us in July 2026. Arun is a historian specializing in the history of mathematics in premodern India. At ASTRA, he studies the Performative Formation of Knowledge through Human–Nonhuman Interactions in Premodern Indian Mathematical Practices. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/aasokan

New Fellow! Arpan Guha is a scholar of Sanskrit Studies specializing in Manuscriptology and Palaeography, with specific expertise in the handling, decipherment, transcription, and collation of manuscripts, alongside related studies in Ancient Indian History. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/people/aguha

📢: We are excited to announce our next High Gravity Talk by Peter Adamson (LMU) on Nov 12, 2026 entitled "Written in the Stars? The Philosophical Defense of Astrology" to be held at Betahaus in central Berlin. For more information, click the link below: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/writte...

For this instalment of “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I spoke to Clemency Montelle about her research. Prof. Montelle delivered a public talk at the launch of the ASTRA Research Group in October 2024. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Next week ASTRA Postdoctoral Fellow Ekaterina Sobkovyak kicks off the two-day workshop "Managing Astral Knowledge in Mongolian Society: Production, Transmission, and Utilization". Check the link for program and Zoom registration. 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/managi... @mpiwg.bsky.social

2,000-year-old gold rings bearing Indian Brahmi inscription unearthed in Thailand www.indiatoday.in/world/story/...

2,000-year-old gold rings bearing Indian Brahmi inscription unearthed in Thailand

Archaeologists in Thailand have found two gold rings, including one with a Brahmi inscription, at the Don Yai Thong site. The find adds fresh evidence of Iron Age trade and cultural links between Indi...

indiatoday.in

Our former Senior Research Fellow Daniela Trinks recently published her article "Association between Go Experience and Sustained Attention in Young Adults" in the Journal of Go Studies. Check it out below! www.intergostudies.net/journal/issu... @mpiwg.bsky.social

ISGS

Association between Go Experience and Sustained Attention in Young Adults

intergostudies.net

For this session of our “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I talked to Alex de Voogt, who delivered the first High Gravity Talk for ASTRA in April 2025. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

In the latest instalment of “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I asked Peter Adamson (LMU) about his research, philosophy, and the future of the history of science. Prof. Adamson will deliver our next High Gravity Talk in November 2026. Stay tuned. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor...

ASTRA Postdoctoral Scholar Jean Arzoumanov spoke to Adrija Roychowdhury about his research on Persian as the language of colonial India’s religious surveys. Read the full story in Indian Express: 🔗 indianexpress.com/article/rese... (paywall)

How Persian became the language of colonial India’s religious surveys

Historian Jean Arzoumanov’s discovery of an 18th-century Jain text in Persian reveals a forgotten era where Hindu scholars used the ‘Islamic’ lingua franca to help British officers survey India’s fait...

indianexpress.com

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science@mpiwg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

In his research, Postdoctoral Scholar Jean Arzoumanov discovered that #Persian served as the language of #Colonial India's religious surveys. Adrija Roychowdhury reports for @indianexpress.com on his work. 📖 🔗 tinyurl.com/3aunbcsv (paywall) #HistSci @astra-mpiwg.bsky.social

For our latest session of “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I asked Kim Plofker about her research, the field of history of science, and plans for the future. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

In case you missed Prof. Ichiro Tanioka's talk "The Emergence of the 19×19 Go Board: A Hypothesis Based on the Yuánjiā Calendar (元嘉曆)" a couple of weeks ago, you can now watch it on our YouTube channel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7s8...

📢: For this session of “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I interviewed Kenneth G. Zysk about his long career, his research, and the state of the history of science today. 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: On 27 May 2026, Dr Ilona Kędzia-Warych (Jagiellonian University) will speak about "Alchemy in the Tamil Siddha Literature: Its Transdisciplinary and Esoteric Aspects" in the ASTRA Colloquium series “Occult Sciences in South Asia: A Non-Western History” www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/alchem...

Our very own Jacob Schmidt-Madsen recently spoke with Praveen Shankara of Prana Stories about South Asian board games and their Indic origins. Check out the podcast below.

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science@mpiwg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Researcher Jacob Schmidt-Madsen in conversation with Praveen Shankara for Prana Stories. They talk about his personal and academic engagement with South Asian #BoardGames and their Indic origins. ♟️ 🎲 🔗 buff.ly/ml8N68V #HistSci #AstralSciences @astra-mpiwg.bsky.social

📢 On May 13, 2026, Prof. Ichiro Tanioka will lecture on "The Emergence of the 19×19 Go Board: A Hypothesis Based on the Yuánjiā Calendar (元嘉曆)" in the ASTRA Colloquium series The Ludic Languages of Asia: Sources and Terminologies. 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/emerge... @mpiwg.bsky.social

In this session of “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I talked to Luís Campos Ribeiro about his research and the field of history of science. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

Happy birthday, Max Planck! 😊 Heute hätte unser Namensgeber Geburtstag. Ein guter Grund, sich den genialen Physiker und Nobelpreisträger genauer anzusehen: Wer war er wirklich? Und wie hat er die Welt verändert? Ein kurzes, filmisches Porträt. #OnthisDay #OTD

📢: Our Spring 2026 ASTRA colloquium series continues today with Matthew Melvin-Koushki on: "Persianate Pythagorean Computing, Early Modern AI and the Imperial Panopticon: From the Safavid World of Geomancy to the Mughal Principles of Guidance" www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/persia...