An interview with Dr Dominik A. Haas during the 19th World Sanskrit Conference

In this interview conducted during the 19th World Sanskrit Conference in Nepal, Dr. Dominik A. Haas, a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, discusses his academic background and current research on mantras, particularly mantra repetition. He explains his initial interest in Sanskrit, which stemmed from his teenage fascination with Latin and religion, and his discovery that Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-European language family. Haas elaborates on the complexity of interpreting mantras, emphasizing that their meaning is highly context-dependent and flexible, which challenges the notion of a single true interpretation. He also shares insights from his book on the Gayatri Mantra, published in 2023, which traces its history and deification. The interview touches on the importance of the World Sanskrit Conference in fostering dialogue between different scholarly approaches to Sanskrit. Haas advocates for open access in South Asian studies, co-founding an initiative to promote free access to scholarly literature, and stresses the ethical responsibility to make knowledge accessible to scholars worldwide, particularly in less wealthy countries. He concludes by highlighting the relevance of historical knowledge for forming accurate self-identities.