Guy St. Amant studies the religion and intellectual history of premodern South Asia. His current book project, which is tentatively titled “Age of Scripture,” examines the proliferation of new scriptural texts among both Hindus and Buddhists during the first millennium CE and analyzes philosophical responses to the theoretical problem of scriptural authority during the same period.
While at Princeton, St. Amant plans to pursue several other projects involving issues that bridge the topics of scripture and language. His broader research interests include the historical translation of Buddhist scriptures from Indian languages into Tibetan and Chinese, the role played by language and linguistic register in marking certain texts as sacred, and the ways in which the adoption of writing affected the production, transmission, and consumption of scriptural and philosophical works in traditional South Asia.
St. Amant completed his Ph.D. research at Columbia University, where his work was partially supported by the Robert H. N. Ho Foundation and the Khyentse Foundation. He received an M.A. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania, where he focused on premodern Chinese religion and literature. He received a B.A. from the University of Cambridge, where he concentrated in Chinese studies. His publications have appeared in the Indo-Iranian Journal and the Journal of Indian Philosophy.
In the fall of 2022, St. Amant will teach a course on premodern South Asian religion called “The Making of Hinduism.”
