Research grant for Yasna

An extensive study of the Yasna ritual will be undertaken through The MUltimedia YAsna (MUYA) project that will film the performance of the ceremony, transcribe the words which the priests recite, examine their meaning and how they relate to the ritual actions and to the tradition of the manuscripts. The five-year MUYA project that will commence in October 2016 has been conceived by Prof Almut Hintze (pictured), Zartoshty Brothers Professor of Zoroastrianism at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London, who has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) advanced investigator grant of nearly € 2.5 million (Rs 187,500,000). "We are told that my grant is not affected by Brexit and that it will be honored,” Hintze responded by email to Parsiana’s queries.

"Competitions for ERC advanced investigator grants are open about once a year to academics in countries of the European Union. The overall success rate lies at nearly 12%,” mentions Hintze. To qualify for an ERC advanced grant to pursue "highly ambitious, pioneering and unconventional projects in Europe,” applicants can be of "any nationality or age but they must be leaders in their respective field(s) of research and must demonstrate significant achievement in the last 10 years,” she explains. The study must be conducted in a public or private research organization (known as a Host Institution) which in her case will be SOAS.
Anticipating extensive travels to India and Iran, Hintze states, "The editorial work will be done in collaboration with Prof Alberto Cantera in Berlin and the Avestan Digital Archive. The MUYA project will contribute to the development of the Avestan Virtual Manuscript Room, in which images of manuscript pages will be linked to transcriptions of the text in Roman letters. The interactive film of the Yasna ritual will be made in India at the Dadar Athornan Institute in collaboration with the principal, Dr Ramiyar Karanjia and his colleagues there.” MUYA provides positions for three full-time and one part-time postdoctoral researcher with three fully funded PhD scholarships.