Grand Decoration in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria awarded to Claudia Rapp

© Damianos Kasotakis

On 22 June 2026, the Department of Byzantine Studies at the University of Vienna held an academic ceremony at the Austrian Academy of Sciences to honour Claudia Rapp's scholarly achievements on the occasion of her 65th birthday.

Maria-Lucia Goiana, Krystina Kubina, Christodoulos Papavarnavas and Giulia Rossetto, members of both her home institutions, the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, presented her with the Festschrift Cosmopolitan Byzantium: People, Ideas, and Interactions (Millennium Studies 121), Berlin: De Gruyter 2026. 

The ceremony concluded with the presentation of the Grand Decoration in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria to Claudia Rapp by ÖAW President Heinz Faßmann.

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Dividing OM, Shaping Mantra Systems

EurAsia Academy Keynote Lecture by Finnian Gerety

The division of the sacred syllable "om" into the three sounds, a, u, and m is one of the most enduring ideas in mantra culture. Originating in Vedic thought, dividing OM offers a fertile framework for the development of mantra systems in premodern India. This talk shows how successive phases of religious thought adapted this idea to suit their own mantras and contexts, from Vedic recitation to Brahmanical dharma, from Purāṇic devotion to Yogic silence, from Śaiva resonance to Jaina karma. The division of the sacred syllable at once shapes and reflects the traditions which claim it: OM is the bedrock of mantra systems and their essential, most dynamic expression.

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