I was trained as a historical and Indo-European linguist (PhD Yale 1977), but for many years I have concentrated on Indo-Iranian, especially (Vedic) Sanskrit and Middle Indo-Aryan languages and textual materials. I work not only on language and linguistics, but also literature and poetics, religion and law, mythology and ritual, and gender studies in these languages, and I am also interested in comparative mythology and poetics, especially with Greek materials.
My teaching at UCLA spans these topics, including Sanskrit, Middle Indo-Aryan, and Old Iranian language and literature, Indo-European and Indo-Iranian linguistics, and undergraduate courses on Classical Indian civilization.
My current major project, jointly with Joel P. Brereton (University of Texas, Austin), is a complete new English translation of the oldest Sanskrit text, the Rig Veda.
My books include:
The Rig Veda between Two Worlds: Four Lectures at the Collège de France, May 2004.
Collège de France, Publications de l'Institut de Civilisation Indienne, fasc. 74. 2007.
Sacrificed Wife / Sacrificer's Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India.
Oxford University Press. 1996
The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun: Myth and Ritual in Ancient India.
Cornell University Press. 1991.
Function and Form in the -áya-formations of the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda.
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 1983.