Banaras Hindu University’s early religious and esoteric intellectual milieu

Record summary

Banaras Hindu University, founded in 1916, became an important setting for encounters among Sanskrit scholarship, Hindu reform, nationalism, comparative religion, yoga discourse, and modern science. It is a useful comparative lead because occult and esoteric ideas circulated alongside institutionalized academic and religious projects rather than in a single movement. Relevant evidence may include inaugural addresses, Sanskrit and philosophy publications, lectures, and biographies of associated scholars. The university should not be represented as an occult organization; the research question concerns overlapping intellectual environments and their boundaries.