David Brick
David Brick is Senior Lector of Sanskrit in the South Asian Studies Council. He holds a B.A. in Asian Languages and Literatures (Sanskrit) from the University of Washington and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in Asian Cultures and Languages (Sanskrit). His research deals largely with diverse aspects of the classical Hindu legal tradition known as Dharmaśāstra, such as: the treatment and status of widows; systems of sin and penance; the practice of judicial ordeals; theories and rituals of gifting; and historical processes of canonization. He is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on assorted topics related to ancient and medieval India, including: “The Dharmaśāstric Debate on Widow-Burning” (JAOS 2010), “The Widow-Ascetic under Hindu Law” (IIJ 2014), and “Bhoḥ as Linguistic Marker of Brahmanical Identity (JAOS 2016). His first book, Brahmanical Theories of the Gift: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Dānakāṇḍa of the Kṛtyakalpatura, was published in 2015 as part of the Harvard Oriental Series. He is currently working on his second book, which will be a complete English translation of the Anuśāsana Parvan of the Mahābhārata, the longer of Sanskrit literature’s two great epics. This book is under contract to be published as part of the University of Chicago’s authoritative Mahābhārata Translation Series.