Professor
South Asian Program Coordinator
Biography
Ph.D. Asian Languages and Literature, University of Washington, 1994
M.A. Eastern Philology and History: Indo-Iranistics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 1986
B.A. Eastern Philology and History: Indo-Iranistics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 1983
Curriculum Vitae
(254.19 KB)
Current Research Projects:
- Edition and translation of selected works by Nagridas, alias Savant Singh of Kishangarh (1699-1764) and his concubine Rasik Bihari alias Bani Thani ("the Indian Mona Lisa"). Confluence of classical Hindi devotional and Indo-Persian and Rajasthani court idiom (sponsored by a NEH and Guggenheim Fellowship).
- Revisiting the birth of Urdu: the reception of "the father of Urdu," Vali, in eighteenth-century Delhi salons, an interdisciplinary project with Purnima Dhavan (History, UW) (sponsored by an NEH Collaborative grant).
Awards and Honors
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (2011–2012)
National Endowment for the Humanities 9-month Fellowship for The Voice of India’s Mona Lisa (2020)
National Endowment for the Humanities collaborative grant with Purnima Dhavan for Urdu’s Origins Revisited: Vali Dakhani’s Reception in Multilingual South Asia (2023–24)
Research
Selected Research
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2018d Sītā. In Mandakranta Bose, ed. The Oxford History of Hinduism: The Goddess. 147–172. Oxford: OUP.
- Pauwels, H. 2025. The Benefits of Marrying a Demoness: The Mahābhārata’s Hiḍimbā Episode. In: Dimitrova, D. (eds) Mythologizing in South Asian Traditions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 81-101. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76830-9_4
- Pauwels, H. 2023b. Mīrā’s Iconography: From Miniature to Movie. In: Karen Pechilis and Amy-Ruth Holt, eds. Devotional Visualities: Seeing Bhakti in Indic Material Cultures. 285–309. London: Bloomsbury Academic 2023
- Pauwels, H. (with Purnima Dhavan). 2023. Crafting Literary Urdu: Mirzā Ḥātim’s engagement with Valī Dakhanī. Modern Asian Studies 57.3: 711–39 (Cambridge)
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2023. The Voice of the Indian Mona Lisa: Gender and Culture in Rajasthan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2022a.Canonization of Bhakti Gurus: A Missing Link between Jai Singh II and Harishcandra. In: Istvan Keul and Srilata Raman, eds. Religious Authority in South Asia: Generating the Guru. 72–83. Routledge South Asian Religious Series. London: Routledge.
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2022b. Un Mahābhārata vernaculaire prémoderne: Performances et émotions à Gwalior au xve siècle. In : Anne Castaing and Ingrid Le Gargasson, eds. Performances de la littérature en Asie du Sud : Réciter, interpréter, jouer. Aix-en-Provence: Presses Universitaires de Provence.
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2021b. The Vernacular Pulse of Sanskrit: Metre and More in Songs of the Gītagovinda and Bhāgavata Purāna. The Journal of Hindu Studies 14: 294–319.
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2021a. The Power Politics of Desire and Revenge: An Old Hindi Kīcaka-vadha Performance at the Tomar Court of Gwalior. In: Nell Hawley and Sohini Pillai, eds. Many Mahābhāratas. 237–56. Albany, NY: SUNY. Download PDF
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2021c. Cultivating Emotion and the Rise of the Vernacular: The Role of Affect in ‘Early Hindi-Urdu’ Song. South Asian History and Culture 21.2: 146–65. DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2021.1878787
- Pauwels, Heidi. 2020e. Reviewing the Idea of Debate within the Intellectual History of South Asia: Early Modern Vernacular Inter- and Intra-Religious Dialogues. Zeitschrift fūr Indologie und Südasienstudien 37: 96–123
- Pauwels, Heidi, and Eva De Clercq, eds. 2020. Vernacular performance, memory construction, and emotions: warrior epics, Akhārās, and giant Jinas in Gwalior, Special issue of South Asian History and Culture. Introduction DOI: 10.1080/19472498.2020.1719318
- Pauwels, H. 2019b. Power Permutations in Old Hindi Manuscripts: Who asks the questions and who gives the answers, Rāmānanda or Kabīr? Manuscript Studies 4.1 (Spring): 42–71.
- Pauwels, Heidi, and Anne Murphy, eds. 2018. From Outside the Persianate Center: Vernacular Views of Aurangzeb/“Alamgir.” Special Issue of Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 28.3.
- Pauwels, Heidi R.M. 2017. Mobilizing Krishna’s World: The Writings of Prince Sāvant Singh of Kishangarh. Seattle, University of Washington Press; Hyderabad, Orient Blackswann (262 pages) ISBN 978-0-295-74223-6 Download PDF
- Pauwels, H. 2016. “Rewriting the Sītā-Rāma Romance: Nāgarīdās’ Rām-Carit-Mālā (1749).” In The Journal of Hindu Studies 9.3: 251–272
- Pauwels, Heidi R.M. 2015. Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century India: Poetry and Paintings from Kishangarh. Studies in Asian Art and Culture 4. Berlin: E.B. Verlag. (301 pages) ISBN 978-3-86893-184-6 Download PDF
- Pauwels, Heidi. "Cosmopolitan Soirées in Eighteenth-Century North India: Reception of early Urdu Poetry in Kishangarh." South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du sud). 2014b.
- Pauwels, Heidi. "When a Sufi tells about Krishna’s Doom:The Case of Kanhavat." The Journal of Hindu Studies (2013;6): 21–36.
- Heidi Pauwels, Monika Horstmann, eds. Indian Satire in the Period of First Modernity. Khoj 9. Harrassowitz Verlag: 2012.
- Heidi Pauwels, Purmina Dhavan. Welcoming Vali: An Exploration of the Literary Legacy of Vali Dakhani. 2011.
- Heidi Pauwels. "A Tale of Two Temples: Mathura’s Kesavadeva and Orchha’s Caturbhujadeva." South Asian History and Culture 2.2 (2011): 278-299.
- Heidi Pauwels. "Rathauri Mira." International Journal of Hindu Studies 14.2-3 (2011): 177-200.
- Heidi Pauwels. "The Woman Waylaid at the Well:' A Folk Theme Appropriated in Myth and Movies." Asian Ethnology 69.1 (2010): 1-33.
- Heidi Pauwels. "The Saint, the Warlord, and the Emperor: Discourses of Braj Bhakti and Bundela Loyalty." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 52 (2009): 187-228.
- Heidi Pauwels. Patronage and Popularisation, Pilgrimage and Procession: Channels of Transcultural Translation and Transmission in Modern and Pre-Modern South Asia. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009.
- Heidi Pauwels. The Goddess as Role Model: Sita and Radha in Scripture and on Screen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Heidi Pauwels. "Stealing a Willing Bride: Women’s agency in the myth of Rukmini's Elopement." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17.4 (2007): 407-441.
- Heidi Pauwels. Indian Literature and Popular Cinema: Recasting Classics. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
- Heidi Pauwels. In Praise of Holy Men: Hagiographic poems by and about Hariram Vyas. Groningen Oriental Studies 18. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2002.
- Pauwels 2024. "A Sixteenth-Century Testimony on Vṛndāvana’s First-Generation Pioneers." In: Kiyokazu Okita and Rembert, eds. The Building of Vṛndāvana: Architecture, Theology, and Practice in an Early Modern Pilgrimage Town. 23–43. Brill's Indological Library 57. Leiden: Brill.
- Pauwels, H. 2019b. Power Permutations in Old Hindi Manuscripts: Who asks the questions and who gives the answers, Rāmānanda or Kabīr? Manuscript Studies 4.1 (Spring): 42–71.
- 2021b. The Vernacular Pulse of Sanskrit: Metre and More in Songs of the Gītagovinda and Bhāgavata Purāna. The Journal of Hindu Studies 14: 294–319.
- Michael C. Shapiro, Heidi Pauwels, Carol Salomon, Alan W. Entwistle. Studies in Early Modern Indo-Aryan Languages, Literature and Culture. South Asia Books.
- Heidi Pauwels, Harirama Vyas. Krsna's Round Dance Reconsidered: Hariram Vyas's Hindi Ras-Pancadhyayi. Curzon Press.
Research Advised
- Diamond, Christopher. expected 2019. “Poet, Scholar, Saint: Competing Vernacular Memories of Vidyāpati (16th-19th cent. CE)”
- Castro, Genoveva. Wājid 'Alī Shāh Plays Krishna's Stolen Flute : The Multiplicity of Voices in the King of Awadh's Dramatic Work. Seattle]: University of Washington, 2016.
- Diamond, Christopher Lawrence. City of the Turks : Urban Encounters in Vidyāpati's Kīrttilatā. Seattle: University of Washington, 2015
- Langerfeld, Joseph. Spiritual Health in the Bhakti Tradition of Śrī Harirāyajī’s Śiksāpatra, 2013, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
- Ritter, Valerie. Useful Absences and the Nature of the Modern : Ayodhyāsiṁh Upādhyāy "Hariaudh" (1865-1947), His Priyapravās (1914), and Hindi Poetry. University of Washington, 2001.
Courses Taught
Spring 2025
Winter 2025
Autumn 2024
Spring 2024
Winter 2024
Winter 2023
Autumn 2022
Spring 2022
Winter 2022
Autumn 2021
Spring 2021
Winter 2021
Winter 2020
Autumn 2019
Spring 2019
Spring 2018
Winter 2018
Additional Courses
- Winter 2023 Relig 456A
- Spring 2022 CLIT 322A
- Winter 2022 Relig 356A Gender Hindu Goddess and CLIT 322A
- Spring 2021Relig 352A
- Spring 2018 - RELIG 352A: Introduction to Hinduism
Resources & Related Links
Affiliations
Home Department
Related Departments
Professional Affiliations
Association of Asian Studies, American Academy of Religion, American Oriental Society, European Association for South Asian Studies
Related News
Related News
- Taking Hindi Songs Seriously: UW Group Launches Open-Access Hindi Song Book (July 7, 2025)
- Missing Women Authors: Songs from the Kishangarh Zenana (October 31, 2023)
- Asian L&L Celebrates Cherry Blossoms with Poetry (April 11, 2023)
- NEH Collaborative Grant for Pauwels, Dhavan, and Ahmad (December 5, 2022)
- Professor Heidi Pauwels publishes Mobilizing Krishna's World (December 15, 2017)
- Memory Construction and Emotion in India, Past and Present (November 12, 2017)
- Departmental Faculty Shine Brightly in UW's Interdisciplinary Honors Program (June 7, 2016)
- LACMA Exhibit Features Translation from Prof. Pauwels’ New Book (May 2, 2016)
- New book by Professor Heidi Rika Maria Pauwels (September 8, 2015)
- Autumn 2015 Course Spotlight - LOVE AND WAR (November 22, 2013)
- Faculty News 2010 (June 1, 2010)
- Faculty News 2009 (June 1, 2009)