Understanding Epic Performance as Musical Process: Re-examining Localized Traditions of Mahabharata in the Himalayas

This OSP program will be used to create a network of leading international academics working on Himalayan epic performance. Collaboration with academics at Heidelberg University, Leipzig University and at the premiere music archive in India - the ARCE - will lead to the creation of an outstanding network of researchers with unique expertise. The program will result in the submission of four articles to top ranked journals. The project is significant because it will create a new theoretical model for understanding musical practice as critical to the construction of epic design within a living tradition of Mahābhārata performance.