Rishi Mahendran Nair

Rishi Mahendran Nair joined ASU in 2024 pursuing his MA in the East Asian Languages & Civilizations (Chinese) Program. He received his Bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies from Western Washington University where he chiefly studied under Dr. Julian Siyuan Wu (Premodern Chinese Literature) and Dr. Ethan Bushelle (East Asian Buddhism).

Rishi’s scholarship seeks to mediate meaningful dialogues between the literary and the religious, enriching our understanding of the impact religion has on the creation, product, evaluation, and culture of poetry, and the influence that poetry has on the expression, practice, and experience of religion in Medieval China. His research particularly emphasizes Buddhist poetic culture and the roles that Classical Chinese poetry, translation and the wider Sino-Indian literary traditions play in the shaping of Chinese Buddhism. He is currently engaged in projects centered upon the evolution of the gāthā (ji 偈), one of the principal forms of Buddhist verse.

Besides his research, he is a passionate student and performer of Indian Classical Music specializing in the Khayāl vocal form of North India and the Santoor - a 100-stringed instrument from Kashmir - both to which he has dedicated 11 years in counting.