Antonio RIGOPOULOS

Full name: Antonio Rigopoulos

Work address: Department of Asian and North African Studies, San Polo 2035, 30125 Venice, Italy

Office phone: +39 041 2348854 / +39 041 2348811

Email: a.rigo@unive.it

Current Academic Positions

Full Professor of Indology, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Editor-in-Chief of the journal Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale

Coordinator of the Editorial Board of Edizioni Ca’ Foscari – Venice University Press

Education

1994: PhD in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Dissertation: Dattātreya: The Immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatāra. A Study on the Transformative and Inclusive Character of a Multi-Faceted Hindu Deity (advisors: Gerald J. Larson, Ninian Smart, and Barbara Holdrege).

1989: Master of Arts in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Thesis: The Avyākatāni and the Catuṣkoṭi Form in the Pāli Sutta Piṭaka (advisors: Gerald J. Larson, Ninian Smart, and Barbara Holdrege).

1987: Degree in History, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Thesis: A Master of Modern India: Sai Baba of Shirdi. The Man, His Milieu, and His Teachings (advisors: Franco Michelini Tocci and Mario Piantelli).

Previous Academic Appointments

1988–1989 and 1989–1990: Teaching Assistant, Department of Religious Studies, Graduate Division, University of California, Santa Barbara.

1995–1996 and 1996–1997: Lecturer in the History and Institutions of Asian Countries, Faculty of Political Science, University of Trieste.

1997–1998 and 1998–1999: Lecturer in the Religions and Philosophies of India, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

1 November 1999 – 31 August 2002: Researcher in the Religions and Philosophies of India, Department of East Asian Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

1 September 2002 – 31 May 2015: Associate Professor of Indology, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Department of East Asian Studies (renamed Department of Eurasian Studies in 2004 and Department of Asian and North African Studies in 2011).

Academic and Institutional Affiliations

Honorary Member of the Luigi Pio Tessitori Indological Society, Udine, since 2024

Member of the Italian Association of Sanskrit Studies (AISS) since 1997

Member of the Venetian Academy of Indian Studies (VAIS), 1995–2005

Member of the Board of the Interdepartmental Centre for Research on Human Rights (CIRDU), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 2005–2008

Awards

1995: Gerald J. Larson Dissertation Award, presented for the best doctoral dissertation defended that year in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Main Research Areas

Ascetic and devotional traditions of medieval and modern Maharashtra, with particular emphasis on the Dattasampradāya

Annotated translations of Sanskrit texts on renunciation and bhakti

Indian hagiographical literature

The Sai Baba movement

The institution of the guru

Termite-mound mythologies

Selected Publications

Behind Kṛṣṇa’s Smile: The Lord’s Hint of Laughter in the Bhagavadgītā and Beyond (with G. Pellegrini, 2024)

The Hagiographer and the Avatar: The Life and Works of Narayan Kasturi (2021)

Oral Testimonies on Sai Baba (2020)

“The Construction of a Cultic Center Through Narrative: The Founding Myth of the Village of Puttaparthi and Sathya Sai Baba,” History of Religions 54, no. 2 (2014): 117–150

The Mahānubhāvs (2011)

Guru. Il fondamento della civiltà dell’India (2009)

Dattalaharī. L’onda di Datta (1999)

Dattātreya: The Immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatāra (1998)

The Life and Teachings of Sai Baba of Shirdi (1993)

He is also the author of the entries “Dattātreya,” “Maharashtra,” “Shirdi Sai Baba,” “Trimūrti,” and “Vibhūti” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, vols. 1 and 5 (2009, 2013).