Researchers led by Selwyn Bye-Fellow Dr Jonathan Duquette are uncovering how 'pundits' kept Sanskrit scholarship thriving in remote Indian villages during British colonial expansion.

While English speakers know the word 'pundit', few know that it comes from the Sanskrit word paṇḍita meaning 'learned'. Jonathan, from Cambridge's Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, is leading a five-year project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), to study the work of pundits, Brahmin scholars, who wrote poems, plays, philosophy, theology, and legal texts in Sanskrit.

Challenging assumptions that British power suffocated Sanskrit learning, the research focuses on the Kaveri Delta in southern India between 1650-1800. Here, hundreds of pundits worked in rural Brahmin settlements (agrahāra) and monasteries (maṭha), producing significant literary and intellectual works.

Jonathan (pictured left) said: "There were literary geniuses among these men, historically significant figures, but many people in India don't know them. We will study texts that have never been translated or printed and it is quite likely we’ll come across texts that have never been studied in Western scholarship or even catalogued.”

These scholars survived colonial pressures partly due to their remote locations and land grants held in perpetuity from the Maratha Bhonsle dynasty. The village of Tiruvisainallur, founded around 1693, housed distinguished figures including Ramasubba Shastri, one of the most original Sanskrit scholars of his day, and the poet-saint Sridhara Venkatesa 'Ayyaval'.

The team will identify twenty or more settlements of intellectual significance, studying land donations, manuscripts, and geographical connections between pundits, temples, and courts.

The project builds on Cambridge's prestigious Sanskrit research tradition dating back to 1867. The University Library holds an internationally important collection of Sanskrit manuscripts.

Information for this article has been taken from a University of Cambridge press release: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/pundit-saviours-of-sanskrit

 Ramasubba Shastri (1840 - 1922)                                                                   Sridhara Venkatesa 'Ayyaval' 

Pictures by Dominik Wujastyk

Published on 16 October

Welcome to our new graduate and undergraduate students.

Our postgraduates gathered in Old Court braving the wind and rain on 3 October, while our undergraduates had sunnier weather for their traditional photograph.

Our postgraduate students celebrated with dinner in Hall on their matriculation evening, while our undergraduate freshers will enjoy their matriculation dinner in the coming days.

All of our freshers have an excellent academic record. They have averaged 8.8 A* grades at GCSEs and 3.0 A* at A level (arts/social sciences 2.6 A*, sciences 3.6*) and those who took the International Baccalaureate gaining 44 out of 45.

To all our new members, arriving from around the world and from right across the UK: we wish you every success and happiness in your studies at Selwyn College and in Cambridge.

Pictures: Howard Beaumont

Our 2025 undergraduates

A few more pictures of our undergraduates below

Our 2025 postgraduates

A few more pictures of our postgraduates below

Suzanne Raine was installed as Master of Selwyn College on 2 October, becoming the first woman to lead the college in its 143-year history.

The ceremony was attended by the Fellowship, staff and students of the college, along with the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The formal installation was followed by Choral Evensong after which Fellows congratulated the new Master outside the Chapel.

Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, presided over the installation ceremony, standing in for the College Visitor, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Selwyn is unique among Cambridge colleges in having the Archbishop of Canterbury as its Visitor.

In her declaration Suzanne pledged to faithfully perform her duties, observe the college's statutes and promote the honour and well-being of Selwyn.

We have extended our particular thanks to Dame Sarah Mullally for conducting the installation ceremony and offered congratulations on her appointment as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, announced today, on 3 October.

Today, 1 October 2025, Suzanne Raine formally becomes Master of Selwyn College, succeeding Roger Mosey, who recently concluded his term. Her election to this office was announced in February 2025. 

Suzanne brings to Selwyn a distinguished background in public service and a commitment to inclusive outreach, dialogue, and academic engagement.

“I am honoured to step into this role,” said Suzanne. “Selwyn is a college with warmth, ambition and a proud history of combining excellence with openness. I look forward to meeting everyone, listening, and working together to build on the foundations Roger and those before him have laid.”

Janet O’Sullivan, vice-master, said: “We are delighted to welcome Suzanne as Master. Her exceptional experience and commitment to excellence and inclusivity make her ideally suited to lead Selwyn into its next chapter."

The college offers its gratitude to Roger Mosey, who retired yesterday, 30 September, after 12 years of service, and wishes him well in his new chapter. Roger becomes an emeritus fellow from today and will continue to have a number of roles in the University.

Coverage of the new Master’s formal installation events will follow in due course.

Selwyn has had an excellent year academically - finishing in the Top 3 Cambridge colleges for exam performance and representing our best set of results since 2009.

League tables are compiled using different methodologies. In one version, we have come second overall behind only Trinity College; and in the unofficial Tompkins Table, published by Varsity, we are third.

The strong performance of Selwyn undergraduates was reflected in a high number of Firsts: 38.2% (compared with a university average of 30%) and again only surpassed by Trinity. We congratulate our students on this success, and also thank our academics and support staff for their contribution to the college.

EXAM RESULTS

If you are holding a conditional offer of a place at Selwyn College and have met all the conditions in your offer, congratulations! There is no need for you to contact us. You will soon see your confirmation through UCAS Hub.  We will also contact you via email as we begin the process of your induction to Selwyn College.

If you have narrowly missed the offer, please be patient.  In such circumstances please send us as soon as possible a scanned copy of your statement of module results for each examination. The statements of results should be sent as email attachments to – admissions@sel.cam.ac.uk.  This will help us to finalise decisions and we will be in touch with you as quickly as we can.  

Reconsideration: Only students who applied in October 2024 and have already been contacted by the University as potentially eligible for reconsideration after results are known may now be re-assessed
Please see - https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/after/apply-for-reconsideration

If you were not made an offer from Selwyn College this year, we cannot consider any applications at this time. Please do not contact the college. Like all the colleges of the University of Cambridge, Selwyn does not participate in clearing.  

If you have very strong examination results and you are not eligible for August reconsideration, you may wish to try for a place at Cambridge. If so, you need to apply by the 15 October 2025 deadline for entry in October 2026.
Information is available on the University web pages.

General Admission 2025 took place on Friday July 4^th, with Selwyn students gathering in Old Court with their families and friends before the traditional procession to the Senate House to receive their degrees. The college warmly congratulates its new graduates.

In a speech to graduands at a dinner on the previous Wednesday evening, the master Roger Mosey quoted from a work by Peter Hall about the great cities in civilisation and what made them work. The reason for success, according to Hall, was that they were junction points: places that encouraged global interaction. “People meet, people talk, people listen to each other’s music and each other’s words, dance each other’s dances, take in each other’s thoughts. And so, by accidents of geography, sparks may be struck and something new come out of the encounter.”

Roger added:  “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people said that about 21^st century Cambridge and London and the UK? You can sometimes see the shape of something in modern Britain that makes you hope it might be possible, and it does depend on us all: that we open our minds, that we retain an intellectual curiosity; and we don’t stick our fingers in our ears in response to each other’s music or boycott a dance festival we don’t like. Instead we try to spread what we do here: based on excellence and knowledge; and wisdom and a concern for each other.” 

A large selection of photographs by Howard Beaumont is available on the Selwyn Facebook and Instagram pages. www.facebook.com/Selwyn.College.Cambridge and www.instagram.com/Selwyn1882

The college is delighted by the success of its academics in this year’s University of Cambridge academic promotions.

These are our newly-promoted professors:

Professorships (Grade 12)
Professor Shaun Thomas Larcom, SE, assigned to the Department of Land Economy 

Dr Eloy De Lera Acedo, SE, assigned to the Department of Physics


Professorships (Grade 11)
Dr Ronita Bardhan, SE, assigned to the Department of Architecture

Dr Kai Liu, SE, assigned to the Faculty of Economics

Dr Christopher Daniel Briggs, SE, assigned to the Faculty of History

Dr Marta Halina, SE, assigned to the Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Congratulations to them all.