After a preliminary meeting of a group of experts from around the world at the height of the Croatian homeland war in 1994 in Dubrovnik, the First Dubrovnik International Conference on Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas was held in August 1997. In regular three-year intervals, the conference was held ten times, including the pandemic year of 2021, when the conference was held hybridly, via zoom and with direct participation.
DICSEP is organized by the Department of Asian Studies (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb University), Croatian Philosophical Society and the conference’s International Board. The International Organising Board consists of Ivan Andrijanić (University of Zagreb), Shrikant Bahulkar (BORI, Pune), Mandakranta Bose (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), Sanne Dokter Mersch (Leiden University), Mislav Ježić (University of Zagreb, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts), Petteri Koskikallio (Finland), Sven Sellmer (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań), Przemysław Szczurek (University of Wrocław), Renate Söhnen-Thieme (School of Oriental and African Studies, London) and Christophe Vielle (Institut orientaliste, Louvain la Neuve). Attendees, including leading international experts, come from all continents where Indological research is undertaken.
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts publishes the conference proceedings in cooperation with Dev Publishers (Delhi) in English with Croatian summaries. Nine volumes have already been published, while the tenth is in progress. DICSEP has evolved into the leading international conference in the field, inspiring new research trends and bringing scientists together.
DICSEP 1 participants, Dubrovnik 1997.