Paul Dundas is a scholar and a senior lecturer in Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 language and head of Asian Studies in the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

. His main areas of academic and research interest include Jainism

Jainism

Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...

, Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, classical Sanskrit literature and Middle Indo-Aryan philology

Middle Indo-Aryan languages

The Middle Indo-Aryan languages are the early medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as Vedic & Classical Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the late medieval languages such as Apabhramsha or Abahatta, which eventually evolved into the...

. He is regarded as one of the leading scholars of the world in Jain studies.

He is currently a member of the Council of the Pali Text Society

Pali Text Society

The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved...

.

Research papers and Conferences

• "Conversion to Jainism : Historical Perspectives" in R. Robinson and S. Clarke ( ed. ), Religious Conversion in India: Modes, Motivations, and Meanings, New Delhi: Oxford University Press 2003, pp. 125–48.
• "Haribhadra's Lalitavistara and the legend of Siddharsi's conversion to Jainism", in O. Qvarnstrom (ed. ), Jainism and Early Buddhism: Essays in Honor of Padmanabh S. Jaini, Fremont: Asian Humanities Press 2003, 151-66.
• "Beyond Anekantavada: A Jain Approach to Religious Tolerance", in T. Sethia ( ed. ), Ahimsa, Anekanta and Jainism, New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass 2004, 123-36.
• Il Jainismo: L'antica religione indiana della non-violenza; Prefazione di Raffaele Torella, Roma: Castelvecchi 2005 (Italian translation of The Jains , second enlarged edition, London and New York Routledge 2002).
• "A Non-Imperial Religion? Jainism in its `Dark Age'", in P. Olivelle (ed.), Between the Empires: Society in India 300BCE-400BCE, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 383–414.
• "The Later Fortunes of Jamali", in P. Flugel (ed.), Studies in Jaina History and Culture: Disputes and dialogues, London and New York: Routledge 2006, pp. 33–60.

Current and imminent projects

• An edition and translation of Magha's Sisupalavadha.
• A translation with commentary of Yasovijaya
  Yasovijaya
  Yaśovijaya , a seventeenth century Jain philosopher-monk was one of India’s greatest philosopher and logician. He was a thinker, prolific writer and commentator who had a strong and lasting influence on Jainism...
  
  's Dvatrimsaddvatrimsika.
• A study of the historical representation of the Jain Pancanamaskara mantra, with particular reference to Yasovijaya's Arhadgita.
• A systematic investigation of the Sanskrit and Prakrit texts of the "Haribhadra corpus".