Annette Schmiedchen is an Indologist and a specialist of premodern Indian history and Sanskrit and Kannaḍa epigraphy. She has focussed on editing the inscriptional corpora of the Maitraka and Rāṣṭrakūṭa dynasties of Western and Central India, studied religious patronage and its legitimation function in Buddhist, Hindu and Jaina contexts, and done research in an intercultural ERC project on medieval foundations and endowments.
Annette Schmiedchen has a Master and a PhD in Indology from Humboldt University, Berlin. She received her Habilitation degree in Indology from Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
She worked as a lecturer in Ancient Indian History and researcher in Sanskrit Epigraphy at Humboldt-Universität, as a guest professor in Indology and Ancient Indian History at HU and Martin-Luther-Universität.
After assignments as Postdoc and Principal Investigator in several research projects funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and ERC (2009-2017), she finally joined Humboldt University in a permanent position in May 2019.
In DHARMA, Annette Schmiedchen is responsible for task-force B (From Deccan to Arakan), based at Humboldt University, Berlin. She will focus on the Sanskrit and Kannaḍa inscriptions of the Bādāmi Cālukyas and Rāṣṭrakūṭas (Deccan) as well as on the epigraphical corpora of the Bhauma-Karas and Eastern Gaṅgas (Orissa).
Selected Publications
2017 [With Zachary Chitwood, Tillmann Lohse, Ignacio Sánchez] “Endowment Studies – Interdisciplinary Perspectives”. Endowment Studies 1.1: pp.1–59.
2014 Herrschergenealogie und religiöses Patronat: Die Inschriftenkultur der Rāṣṭrakūṭas, Śilāhāras und Yādavas (8. bis 13. Jahrhundert). Gonda Indological Series 17. Leiden: Brill.
2013 “Patronage of Śaivism and Other Religious Groups in Western India under the Dynasties of the Kaṭaccuris, Gurjaras and Sendrakas from the 5th to the 8th Centuries”. Indo-Iranian Journal 56 (3–4): pp.349–363.
2013 “Stiftungen zum Unterhalt buddhistischer Klöster in Indien (1. bis 10. Jahrhundert)”. In Stifter und Mäzene und ihre Rolle in der Religion: Von Königen, Mönchen, Vordenkern und Laien in Indien, China und anderen Kulturen, edited by Barbara Schuler. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp.99–116.
2010/11 “Religious Patronage and Political Power: The Ambivalent Character of Royal Donations in Sanskrit Epigraphy”. Journal of Ancient Indian History 27: pp.154–166.
