Tillo Detige currently teaches Sanskrit and Hindi at CERES, where he is also completing his doctoral research project 'Eternal Salutations: Memorials of Digambara Jaina Ascetic Lineages from Western India', which investigates the history of Digambara Jaina ascetic lineages in early modern Western India. He works with manuscript as well as epigraphic and material sources, and has performed several months of field work, surveying Digambara ascetics’ funerary monuments and visiting Digambara temples throughout the region. In 2022, he worked on the CERES CRC Metaphors of Religion, subproject ‘The Human Body as Metaphor of the Divine: Anthropomorphism in South Asian Religious Traditions’. His further interests include Jain ritual, Theravādā meditation, South Asian, narrative, ritual, and meditative practices as technologies of the self, and the entanglement of practices of emancipation and subjugation.

https://rub.academia.edu/TilloDetige

On appointment

Publications

• Detige, Tillo (in preparation) “Apropos Digambara Jaina Munis in 19^th century CE Western India”. [journal article]
• Detige, Tillo (forthcoming) Detige, Tillo. “A Tale of Two Courts: Records of Kachavāhā mahārājas in Digambara Jaina memorials.” In: Annette Schmiedchen & Daniel Balogh (eds.) Self- Representation and Presentation of Others in Indic Epigraphical Writing [working title]. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Detige, Tillo (2024) "The Ritual Veneration of Living Digambara Jaina Renouncers." In: Purushottama Bilimoria, Cogen Bohanec, & Rita D. Sherma (eds.) Contemplative Studies & Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration, Routledge, London & New York, p. 107-20.
• Detige, Tillo (2023) “Digambara Memorials from Western India pre-20th Century CE”. In: Peter Flügel, Heleen De Jonckheere, & Renate Söhnen-Thieme (eds.) Pure Soul: The Jaina Spiritual Traditions, Centre of Jaina Studies, London, p. 70-9.
• Detige, Tillo (2020) "Whither the Bhaṭṭāraka Era?", Jaina Studies: Newsletter of the Centre of Jaina Studies 15, p. 34-37.
• Detige, Tillo (2020) “Digambara Renouncers in Western and Central India, c. 1100–1800”. In: John Cort, Paul Dundas & Kristi Wiley (eds.) Encyclopedia of Jainism, Brill, Leiden, p. 182-215.
• Detige, Tillo (2020) “Not just Stories. Jain and Buddhist Narratives as Epistemic Technology”. In: Eric Ottenheijm & Marcel Poorthuis (eds.) Parables in Changing Contexts: Essays on the Study of Parables in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, Brill, Leiden, p. 95-126.
• Detige, Tillo (2019) ‘‘Tataḥ Śrī-Gurus-Tasmai Sūrimantraṃ Dadyāt’, ‘Then the Venerable Guru Ought to Give Him the Sūrimantra’: Early Modern Digambara Jaina Bhaṭṭāraka Consecrations’. Religions 10/369, p. 1-31.
• Detige, Tillo (2019) “‘Guṇa kahūṃ śrī guru’: Bhaṭṭāraka Gītas and the Early Modern Digambara Jaina Saṅgha.” In: Maya Burger & Nadia Cattoni (eds.) “Early Modern India: Literature and Images, Texts and Languages”, CrossAsia-eBooks, Heidelberg and Berlin, p. 271–85.
• Detige, Tillo (2018) “Satpātrāya samarpittaṃ: Manuscript Copies and the Early Modern Digambara Saṅgha’.” In: Christine Chojnacki & Basile Leclère (eds.) The Gift of Knowledge: Patterns of Patronage in Jainism, Sapna Book House, Bengaluru, p. 274–370.
• Detige, Tillo (2017). “Manuscript Collections of the Western and Central Indian Bhaṭṭārakas”. Jaina Studies: Newsletter of the Centre of Jaina Studies 12, p. 36-9.
• Detige, Tillo (2015). “The Bhaṭṭārakas of Kārañjā (Lāḍa): Triveṇī Saṅgama at Jaina Kāśī”. In: Luitgard Soni & Jayandra Soni (eds.) Sanmati, Essays Felicitating Professor Hampa Nagarajaiah on the occasion of his 80th Birthday, Sapna Book House, Bengaluru, p. 143-176.
• De Clercq, Eva & Tillo Detige (2015). “Colossi and Lotus Feet: Paṇḍitas and Bhaṭṭārakas in the north Indian Digambara Legacy”. In: Julia A. B. Hegewald (ed.) Jaina painting and manuscript culture: In memory of Paolo Pianarosa, EB-Verlag, Berlin, p. 303-335.
• Detige, Tillo (2014). “Worshipping Bhaṭṭārakas”. Jaina Studies: Newsletter of the Centre of Jaina Studies 9, p. 27-30.
• Detige, Tillo (2013). "Een haan van deeg en een hert van goud: verhalen over karma en hergeboorte uit jaïnisme en boeddhisme." In: Eva De Clercq & Saartje Verbeke (eds.) India. Een wereld van verhalen, Academia Press, Gent p. 117-143.
• Detige, Tillo (2009). ‘Modern Buddhism & The Vipassanā Meditation Traditions’ (in Dutch),  Master dissertation, Ghent University.
• Detige, Tillo (2008). ‘“What is Bhāvanāmayā Paññā?” An article by S.N. Goenka translated from the original Hindi & compared to extracts from the Pāli Tipiţaka and Visuddhimagga’ (in Dutch), Bachelor dissertation: Ghent University.

Education

• Postgraduate of Hindi Proficiency, Kendrīya Hindī Sansthān, Delhi, 2012.
• Master in Oriental Languages & Cultures (India), Ghent University, 2009.
• Master in Fine Arts, KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts), School of Arts Ghent, 2003.

Professional Experience

• Researcher, sub-project ‘The human body as metaphor of the divine. Anthropomorphism in South Asian religious traditions’, Collaborative Research Center ‘Metaphors of Religion: Religious Meaning-Making in Language Use’, CERES, RUB, February - December 2022.
• PhD-project, ‘Eternal Salutations: Funerary Monuments of Early Modern Digambara Jaina Renouncers from Western and Central India’, Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, since June 2020.
• Researcher, ‘Early Modern Digambara Jainism in Western and Central India: The Age of the Bhaṭṭārakas?’, Ghent University, September 2012 – June 2018.

Teaching

• Lecturer, Sanskrit & Hindi, CERES, RUB, since April 2021.
• Lecturer, History of South Asian Buddhism, Carleton-Antioch Buddhist Studies in India program, Bodhgaya, India, September-December 2018.
• Instructor, Hindi, Summer School, Académie Belge pour l’Etude des Langues Anciennes et Orientales (ABELAO), Université catholique de Louvain, August 2018.
• Lecturer, Hindi, BA & MA courses, Department of Languages & Cultures, Ghent University, Sept. 2012 - Jan. 2013, Sept.–Nov. 2014, Nov. 2015, Sept. 2016 – June 2018.
• Instructor, Dutch, CVO GLTT (Centre for Adult Education), Sint-Genesius-Rode & Halle, Jan. - June 2011.
• Instructor, integration courses for foreigners in Hindi & Urdu, Integration Office for Foreigners of the city of Ghent, August-September 2010; Integration Office for Foreigners of the city of Antwerp, March - July 2011.
• Interpreter, Hindi-Dutch, Dec. 2009 - March 2010; Nov. 2010 - Feb. 2011, Oct.-Nov. 2015, various.

• Sanskrit I
• Sanskrit II
• Sanskrit III (Lektüre)
• Hindi I
• Hindi II
• Hindi III