Ashwini Mokashi

Lecturer in Hindi; Tutor in Marathi
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford / Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies / Member, Wolfson College
ashwini.mokashi@ames.ox.ac.uk
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Faculty/College

Lecturer in Hindi; Tutor in Marathi 

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford

Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Member, Wolfson College

Research 

Dr Ashwini Mokashi is a scholar of comparative philosophy whose research brings ancient Indian and Classical Greek philosophical traditions into dialogue. Her work explores questions of wisdom, happiness, ethical life, and spiritual practice, with particular attention to the Bhagavad-Gita, Stoic philosophy, and the devotional traditions of India.
Her early philosophical work focused on analytical philosophy, including Aristotle’s critique of Platonism. She subsequently turned to comparative philosophy for her doctoral research, examining the concept of the wise person in Stoicism and the Bhagavad-Gita. This work developed into a broader interest in spiritual philosophy and in the ways philosophical ideas are lived and practiced.
Her current research concerns the philosophy of R. D. Ranade and the Bhakti traditions of India, particularly the writings of saints in Hindi and Marathi. Her work on Sant Kabir and Sant Tukaram explores the relationship between devotion, knowledge, ethical transformation, and the possibility of philosophy as a lived practice. She is also interested in the Nimbargi School and its distinctive synthesis of Bhakti, Jnana, meditation, and spiritual practice.
 
Her research in comparative philosophy has also influenced her work in philosophical counselling. She has developed and applied Kabir-, Bhagavad-Gita-, and Gita–Stoic-based approaches to philosophical counselling, bringing classical philosophical and devotional texts into conversation with contemporary questions and lived experience.
 
Dr Mokashi is the Convener of the Oxford Conference on the Academic Exploration of Bhakti in Indian Philosophy.

Teaching 

Dr Mokashi teaches Hindi and Marathi, with interests in literary and classical texts and in the relationship between language, literature, and Indian philosophical thought.
At AMES, she teaches:
  • Literary Hindi
  • Elementary Hindi
Previously, she taught Ancient Greek and Sanskrit: A Comparative Study and undergraduate Philosophy courses at Savitribai Phule Pune University, India. She has also taught Wisdom Leads to Happiness, a course combining the Bhagavad-Gita and Stoic philosophy, at the Evergreen Forum in Princeton, New Jersey. Earlier in her career, she taught German language and worked in the field of German English technical translation.

 

  • Elementary Marathi
  • Marathi Readings, including literature from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries

Publications 

Books
  • Sapiens and Sthitaprajna (2019), DK Printworld, New Delhi. The book was developed from her doctoral research in 2002.
  • Kabir on Philosophical Counseling (2026), ACPR Publications, Belagavi, India.
Translations
  • सेपियन्स और स्थितप्रज्ञ (Hindi, 2024), MB Publishing, New Delhi.
  • सेपियन्स आणि स्थितप्रज्ञ (Marathi, forthcoming 2026), MB Publishing, New Delhi.
Selected Articles
  • Sant Kabir and Gurudev Ranade: Bhakti and the Ethics of Lived Philosophy, (Feb. 2026), The Life, Literature and Works of Gurudev Dr. R.D. Ranade, ACPR Belagavi, India
  • Mysticism Through the Lens of Comparative Philosophy (April-June 2025), Pathway to God Journal, National Conference: Special Edition, ACPR Belagavi, India
  • Sthitaprajña as an Ideal in the Indian Knowledge Systems (Book chapter forthcoming in 2026), Bharatiya Knowledge Traditions, Volume 3, MLBD Publishing, New Delhi
  • Trust and Forgiveness as Foundations of Philosophical Wellbeing, (2026-27, forthcoming, book chapter) MLBD Publishing, New Delhi
  • Paths to Liberation: Mysticism in Tantra and Bhakti Through the Lens of Kāma Transformation Model, (forthcoming, 2026-27) Journal of South Asia, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Consciousness, Bhakti and Ranade: Toward a Relational Model of Consciousness and the Pursuit of Happiness, (Presented in April 2026 Bhakti Conference) AMES Oxford, to be published

Academic and Professional Engagement 

Dr Mokashi has delivered over 30 invited talks at renowned academic institutions in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe. 

She is the founder of Philosophy and Happiness, LLC, a philosophical counseling practice. She served two terms as President of the Princeton Research Forum, a group of independent research scholars in New Jersey, USA. She is an academic counselor at the ‘Academy of Comparative Philosophy and Religion’ in Belagavi, India. Prior to her academic career, she worked in executive compensation management for a decade in the United States. 

She publishes on spiritual philosophy in the Journal of ACPR (India) and on philosophical counselling in the Journal of APPA (New York). She maintains a multilingual academic blog (Hindi, Marathi, English, and occasionally German) and produces public philosophy lectures, and ‘Philosophy & Music’ programs on YouTube along with Swarras school of Music, including the Kabiriyat and Tukayan projects, which explore the spiritual philosophy of Sant Kabir and Sant Tukaram and the modern relevance of their teachings.