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← The Oxford Centre For Hindu Studies

2025-03-31-accounts

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Charity Registration No: 1074458

Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements

for the year ended

31 March 2025

Wenn Townsend

Chartered Accountants

Oxford

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Legal and Administrative Details

Registered charity number 1074458
Trustees: Prof Diwaker Acharya (Humanities Division representative)
Prof Francis X Clooney (Resigned 30thSeptember 2025)
Mr Shaunaka Rishi Das
Lord Dholakia, OBE, DL
Dr Mark Edwards (Theology Faculty representative)
Dr S Bhattacharya-Ford (Resigned 30thSeptember 2025)
Prof Richard Gombrich (Resigned 30thSeptember 2025)
Mr Pujan H Patel
Mr Ajay Piramal
Mrs Madhu Ruia
Mr Azad Shivdasani
Prof Mark Smith (Oriental Studies representative)
Mr Ramesh Venkataraman
Prof Himan Shruprabha Ray (Resigned 30thSeptember 2025)
Director: Shaunaka Rishi Das
Auditors: Wenn Townsend
30 St Giles
Oxford
OX1 3LE
Registered office: 15 Magdalen Street
Oxford
OX1 3AE
Bankers: Barclays Bank plc
P O Box 333
Oxford
OX1 3HS

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Contents

Page
Trustees’ report 1-9
Auditor’s report 10-11
Statement of financial activities 12
Balance sheet 13
Statement of cash flows 14
Notes to the financial statements 15-23

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

The Trustees present their report and the audited financial statements of the Charity for the year ended 31 March 2025. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) “Accounting and Report by Charities” (FRS102) in preparing the annual report and financial statement of the Charity.

Structure, government and management

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) is governed under a Trust Deed dated 1 February 1999 as amended by a Declaration of Trust dated 28th June 2006. Its registered charity number is 1074458. The Trustees of the Charity are shown on page 1.

Trustees’ meetings are scheduled each year, with extra meetings called if required. The Director deals with the day-to-day management of the OCHS.

All decisions concerning policies and appointment of advisors and Trustees are referred to the Trustees. The Trustees keep the activities of the OCHS under regular annual review, identifying risks and mitigating them through internal controls and insurance. They approve the risk register annually.

Objectives and activities of the Charity

The OCHS is an academy for the study of Hindu culture, society, philosophies, and languages, in all periods and in all parts of the world. The OCHS is dedicated to preserving India’s cultural heritage and promoting better understanding of it through a comprehensive programme of education, publishing and research. The OCHS is also a Recognised Independent Centre of Oxford University.

Achievements and performance of the charity

Teaching

Dr Rembert Lutjeharms was on sabbatical for part of the year, but gave the Hinduism: Traditions and Theologies lectures , supervised one DPhil student, one MSt student, and one BA student, in addition to the regular Hinduism tutorials.

Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen continued to teach the Sanskrit and Pāli Prelims course for the Faculty of Theology & Religion, which had six students this year. He tutored for the Religion & Religions, Hinduism: Sources and Formations , Hinduism: Theology and Traditions , and Further Studies in Hinduism papers as well as the Buddhism: Sources and Formations paper. He also tutored two visiting students and two MSt students, supervised two DPhil dissertations and acted at the University’s internal examiner for two DPhil confirmations and a viva. He mentored two DPhil students for the Faculty’s new Graduate Teacher Training Scheme and convened the Postgraduate Seminar in Hindu Studies.

Dr Jessica Frazier tutored five students for Hinduism: Sources and Formations , two for Hinduism: Theology and Traditions , four for Nature of Religion , two for Further Studies and dissertations, two visiting students, and fourteen students for Religion & Religions . She also taught two MSt students and supervised two DPhil candidates. Dr Frazier also served on the Undergraduate Studies Committee as representative for Study of Religions, and on the Study of Religions subject group as the secretary.

Prof. Gavin Flood continued his weekly Readings in Phenomenology . He gave tutorials for six undergraduate students in Hinduism 1 and Hinduism 2 , in The Nature of Religion , and Prelims Religion and Religions . He also supervised two visiting students, two MSt students and three DPhil candidates.

Research

Body and Embodiment in the Middle Bengali Imaginary Project Leaders: Dr Robert Czyżykowski and Dr Lucian Wong

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

Body and Embodiment in the Middle Bengali Imaginary, co-directed by Dr Robert Czyżykowski (Jagiellonian University) and Dr Lucian Wong (OCHS), is a 2-year research project initiated in January 2023 and funded by €50,000 grant by Jagiellonian University’s Strategic Program Excellence Initiative, with supplementary funding from the OCHS. The project brings a team of specialists together to examine how ideas of body and embodiment take shape in early modern Bengal’s rich and multi-religious corpus of vernacular literature.

Having completed two workshops at Jagiellonian University in Krakow (January 2023 and Une 2024), a double session panel at the annual conference of the EASR (September 2023), and monthly virtual seminars over 18 months (February 2023–June 2024), the project has secured an Open Access publishing contract with Bloomsbury Academic for a volume of translations and critical essays based on materials developed during the course of the project, titled Bodily Technologies in the Middle Bengali Imaginary: Embodiment, Ecstasy, Immortality, edited by Dr. Lucian Wong and Dr. Robert Czyżykowski, which explores the rich repertoire of bodily techniques for navigating life and death developed across the religiously plural Middle Bengali literary corpus.

Rethinking Hinduism in Colonial India

Project Leaders: Dr Arun Brahmbhatt, Dr Avni Chag, and Dr Lucian Wong

The Rethinking Hinduism in Colonial India project is a dedicated platform for the consolidation and coordination of research that critically investigates intellectual, ritual, social, and other kinds of development within sampradāyic Hindu formations across colonial India. Project directors Dr Brahmbhatt (Syracuse University) and Dr Wong (OCHS) have secured an Open Access publishing contract with The State University of New York (SUNY) Press for an edited volume, Pluralizing Hinduism in the Empire of Reform .

Bringing together scholars from Religious Studies, Philology, Intellectual History, Social History, Law, Anthropology, Political Science, and Theology, Pluralizing Hinduism in the Empire of Reform deploys Hindu sectarian currents – often overlooked in the context of the study of modern Hinduism – as entry points for critically re-thinking the texture of colonial Hindu life-worlds. Collectively, the book’s chapters lay bare the tangled, heterogenous trajectories of these sectarian formations amidst the reifying, standardizing, and syndicating forces at work in this context of colonial transformation. Disrupting entrenched disciplinary habits, the book calls for the writing of more accommodating, pluriform histories of modern Hinduism that resist any neat teleologies of modernity and the emergent Indian nation-state

Digital Humanities & Hindu Studies

Project Leaders: Dr Bjarne-Wernicke Olesen and Dr Lucian Wong Digital Curator: Michael Elison Digital Consultant: Dr Ulrik Lyngs

The Digital Humanities and Hindu Studies project was founded by Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen and Dr Ulrik Lyngs and has developed the new OCHS Manuscript Database. The project is now led by Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen and Dr Lucian Wong. Dr Ulrik Lyngs (Department of Computer Science, Oxford University) is the former Digital Lead and will continue as Digital Consultant for the project after the official launch of the OCHS Manuscript Database in Michaelmas Term 2024. Michael Elison (MPhil, Oxon) and Utsa Bose (DPhil candidate, Oxford) will continue as Digital Curators, and the researchers Dr Rajan Khatiwoda and Dr Silje Lyngar Einarsen will continue working on the Śākta dimension of the database. The Vaiṣṇava database dimension is led by Dr Lucian Wong and is currently being developed with several digital curators and a large digital collection of Vaiṣṇava manuscripts donated by Tokyo University through the facilitation of Dr Kiyokazu Okita.

The research project aims to establish a state-of-the-art open-access database, providing a new and original user interface for browsing and interacting with manuscript materials. A new focus and aim for the project is creating AI models for handwriting and text recognition in South Asian manuscripts, with groundbreaking potential. This project has received one of the largest awards in the latest round of Digital Scholarship (DiSc) Research Development grants at the University of Oxford (£42,250).

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

The Śākta database that forms part of the OCHS Manuscript database aims to establish the primary research material for Śākta traditions in South Asia as an emerging field of studies. It makes the core texts of the traditions as well as large amounts of unknown research material widely available and searchable for the first time. Our collaboration with the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute continues and their digital collection of tantric E-texts (the result of 22 years of digitisation work) will be shared on the OCHS database in combination with metadata and manuscript images providing an ideal case scenario of what is possible.

The OCHS Manuscript Database uses the advanced Mirador 3 viewer and a custom-made OCHS viewer. Compared to existing major manuscript databases such as the Cambridge Digital Library and the NGMCP, the OCHS database offers a more advanced interface allowing users to see transliterated and translated texts side-by-side with metadata, critical apparatus, notes, and images of the original manuscripts. It is possible to download specific views of text data in structured form (e.g. CSV), overlay text on top of the manuscript image to compare (e.g. transliteration or translation with the original Sanskrit text), and add comments or suggest corrections for text or image material.

The project has greatly expanded its manuscript and E-text volume. Agreements concerning online publishing of manuscripts are being made with the National Archives of Kathmandu and other institutions including the Muktobodha Indological Research Institute and the Matsya Digitization project resulting from an MoU with the Information Research Center, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

The project has successfully produced:

Uploading large amounts of data, including manuscript images, metadata and transliteration of manuscripts, both known core texts and new/unknown research material.

Digital Humanities & Hindu Studies: Creating AI Models for Handwriting and Text Recognition in South Asian Manuscripts

This project is led by Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen in collaboration with Dr Lucian Wong and received one of the largest awards in the latest round of Digital Scholarship (DiSc) Research Development grants at the University of Oxford (£42,250). The project is breaking new ground at the intersection of traditional philology and cutting-edge AI.

As stated on the University webpage: “Firmly embedded in the Faculty of Theology and Religion’s longstanding strengths in textual analysis and the study of religious traditions, the project combines the study of Hindu source texts with data science and AI. Its aim is to develop Devanāgarī Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities using Transkribus AI software to convert ancient Sanskrit manuscripts into machine-readable, searchable e-texts—a potentially transformative development for scholars of religion, language, and cultural history. If successful, this high-risk, high-reward project could revolutionise access to primary sources in South Asian studies and place the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the forefront of Digital Humanities in the study of religion.”

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

Working with a team of Nepalese manuscript experts based at the OCHS Kathmandu Office, and under the digital curatorship of Tom Derrick in Oxford, the team is training the AI models using palm-leaf manuscripts from the Śākta and Vaiṣṇava traditions. The team based in Kathmandu has been working in the OCHS Office since January 2025 and consists of Professor Bhim Prasad Kandel, Bharat Maharjan, and Dr Kedar Ghimire.

The digital manuscript materials, many of which are previously unstudied, are hosted in the newly launched OCHS Indic Manuscript Database—an open-access platform developed by Dr Ulrik Lyngs and Dr WernickeOlesen, in collaboration with digital curator Michael Elison.

Gauḍīya Studies Research Programme

The Oxford Handbook of Gaudiya Vaishnava Studies

Dr Rembert Lutjeharms and Dr Lucian Wong, the co-directors of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism Research programme (with Pro. Måns Broo and Dr. Kiyokazu Okita), have secured a publishing contract with Oxford University Press (OUP) for a volume that will be included in OUP’s esteemed Oxford Handbooks series.

The Oxford Handbook of Gaudiya Vaishnava Studies will present a compendium of essays that showcases the state-of-the-art in the field. The handbook brings together leading scholars from a variety of academic disciplines: religious studies, theology, philology, philosophy, literary studies, art history, anthropology, and sociology, among others. The chapters that constitute the volume will cover key aspects of the tradition across a variety of registers – historical and living, textual and embodied – and will be curated to provide a cogent framework for understanding Gaudiya Vaishnavism in all its heterogeneity and complexity. Useful across a spectrum of expertise, from advanced undergraduate to seasoned researcher, and indispensable for any university teaching that engages with Gaudiya Vaishnava-related themes, The Oxford Handbook of Gaudiya Vaishnava Studies aims to be the go-to resource for anyone undertaking critical exploration of this rich Hindu devotional religion of transregional and transnational significance.

The Vaishnava Sensorium

Project Leaders: Dr Ayesha Irani and Dr Lucian Wong

This project, led by Dr Ayesha Irani (University of Massachusetts, Boston) and Dr Lucian Wong (OCHS), brings together scholars from the fields of textual studies, literature, philosophy, anthropology, ritual studies, and art history, to share and inspire research that focuses on the sensorium as it is understood in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava philosophy, poetry, drama, aesthetics, and practice. The project aims to produce an edited volume on the “Vaishnava Sensorium” that charts a new poetics of perception and experience of the divine among the Gauḍīyas (and their reverberations . In December 2024 and February 2025 the project directors hosted two workshops – at Presidency College, Kolkata, and the University of Massachusetts (UMAss), Boston, respectively – in which project participants engaged in close discussion of pre-circulated drafts chapters intended for the volume. Workshop participants included: Dr Abhishek Bose, Dr David Buchta, Ishan Chakrabarti, Dr Upal Chakrabarti, Dr Robert Czyżykowski, Dr Jonathan Edelmann, Eileen Goddard, Dr Eben Graves, Prof. Shaman Hatley, Prof. Glen Hayes, Prof. Ayesha Irani, Dr Carola Lorea, Prof. Rebecca Manring, Dr Kiyokazu Okita, Dr Sukanya Sarbadhikary, Dr Dhurjjati Sarma, Dr Aleksandar Uskokov, and Dr Lucian Wong.

The project co-directors are currently editing chapters and working toward securing a publishing contract with an appropriate publisher for the volume.

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

Gauḍīya Patrikā

Project Leaders: Dr Lucian Wong and Dr Sumantra Rudra

The product of an institutional collaboration between the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, the Bhaktivedanta Research Centre, and the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Gauḍīya Patrikā: A Digital Archive of Bengali Vaiṣṇava Periodicals is an online, open-access, fully text-searchable digital archive of Bengali Vaiṣṇava periodical literature from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. With the central objective of facilitating research on this expansive periodical corpus, Gaudīya Patrikā contains: digital images of every page of nearly every periodical in its collection, displayed through the IIIF-compliant Mirador viewer; OCR generated text displayed side by side with the corresponding image file; a list of contents searchable under several heads; and a full-text search engine. Having previewed Gauḍīia Patrikā at the OCHS’s Digital Humanities and Hindu Studies event in November 2024, the project team is now due to publicly launch the site.

Gauḍīya Study Programme

This Trinity Term marks the fifth year of the online Gaudiya Study Programme. This online tutorial programme was started in April 2020 and introduces current academic research on Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism to Vaiṣṇava students across the globe--from New Zealand to the Americas. The programme is led by Dr. Rembert Lutjeharms, and includes among its teachers Dr Måns Broo, Shaunaka Rishi Das, Prof. Ravi Gupta, Prof. Kiyokazu Okita, Dr Kenneth Valpey, and Dr Lucian Wong.

After the success of the first in-person retreat at the Vedanta Centre in Lincoln in 2023, a new study retreat is currently planned to be held in Vrindavan, India in December 2025.

Indian Philosophy

Project Leader: Dr Jessica Frazier

Dr Jessica Frazier continued to convene the Senior Seminars in Indian Philosophy twice termly with eight talks culminating in a ‘Radical Phenomenology in India’ conference at Trinity College on 2[nd] June. Gave talks exploring and promoting Indian metaphysics and philosophy of mind at the University of Groningen and King’s College, London. Joined Birmingham University’s Templeton-funded Global Philosophy of Religion project as an advisor, and invited to speak on the American Philosophical Association podcast about topics in Indian philosophy.

The Śākta Traditions Research Programme

Project Leaders: Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen and Prof. Gavin Flood

The Śākta Traditions research project, which was officially launched in 2011 with a two-day international conference in Oxford and subsequent publication with Routledge, has developed into a research programme encompassing a number of interdisciplinary projects, publications, and a growing international research network. The research programme aims to carve out space for Śāktism as a major Hindu tradition within the South Asian religious context by defining its theology, textual lineages, historical evolution, and its relationship to parallel traditions such as Śaivism, Vaiṣṇavism, and Buddhism. It has produced several international symposia, workshops, and seminars in Oxford and elsewhere as well as numerous volumes and articles. New projects include a translation project of the Ṣaṭcakranirūpana aiming at a full English and Danish translation along with an annotated edition of the text. The translation project is led by Dr Wernicke-Olesen and Dr Silje Lyngar Einarsen and forms part of the newly established Scandinavian Indological Society.

Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen is supervising two new Oxford DPhil students as the main supervisor in the area of Śākta Studies: Sharvi Maheshwari (‘Śākta Rituals in Bhaktapur: The Navadurgā Dances as Practiced Among the Newars’) and Gonzalo Fernandez (‘An Examination of the Role of Yoginīs in Śākta Tantric Śaivism’). Professor Gavin Flood is co-supervisor for both students.

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

The Oxford History of Hinduism: Śāktism and the Tantric Traditions

Dr Wernicke-Olesen has secured a contract with Oxford University Press for a new volume in the esteemed Oxford History of Hinduism series on Śāktism and the Tantric Traditions . The volume is edited by Dr Wernicke-Olesen and contains two chapters by Professor Alexis Sanderson on Śāktism from Kashmir and Beyond as well as contributions from other leading scholars in the field of tantric and Śākta Studies. It is anticipated to become a groundbreaking volume.

Tantra in South Asia: Śākta and Śaiva Religion from Kashmir and Beyond

Project Leaders: Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen, Prof. Alexis Sanderson, and Prof. Gavin Flood

In 2022, a high-profile research and publication project with Professor Alexis Sanderson, Professor Gavin Flood, and Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen was added to the Śākta Traditions research programme. The Śākta and Śaiva tantric traditions are found in various places in India and Nepal. They form the ritual and philosophical core of many yogic and tantric traditions and movements that were exported to the rest of the world, and they have now become part and parcel of global religious history. An understanding of the Sākta Śaiva traditions, especially as they developed in Kashmir and beyond, is crucial for an understanding of the history of Indian religions as well as an understanding of modern yoga and tantra as it is practised today in many places around the world. These traditions can be traced back many centuries but until recently, tantric worship in Kashmir was understood simply as ‘Kashmir Śaivism’, the worship of the god Śiva including all deities related to him. But it is now evident that this understanding does not suffice to describe the actual practices and forms of religion found in the texts and lived by people. At the core of Śaiva worship and Śaiva philosophy, we find that Śākta worship, or worship of the Goddess, plays a prominent role. This insight means that much in our understanding of Indian religions is about to change, and the publications included in this project will contribute to the rewriting of the history of Indian Religions that Professor Sanderson’s work has precipitated. The Śākta and Śaiva Religion from Kashmir and Beyond project will therefore establish the OCHS as a central institution for Tantric and Śākta studies in the UK. The project outputs are:

Fortnightly manuscript reading seminars at the OCHS in Michaelmas Term every year by Dr Bjarne WernickeOlesen, Professor Gavin Flood and Professor Alexis Sanderson for the OCHS and the Theology and Religion Faculty. In Michaelmas Term 2024 Dr Wernicke-Olesen offered “Readings in Śāktism: The Netratantra” at the OCHS.

Postgraduate Seminar in Hindu Studies: Śāktism and the Tantric Traditions

Convener: Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen

This new series of postgraduate seminars in Hindu Studies focuses on current DPhil research in Indic religions with a Study of Religion oriented approach. In each seminar, 2-3 DPhil candidates will present on a topic they are currently investigating. These informal seminars offer an excellent way to discover and learn about current research in the field of Hindu Studies as well as an opportunity for candidates to present and receive valuable feedback on work in progress. In Michaelmas Term 2024 the theme was Śāktism and the tantric traditions convened by Dr Wernicke-Olesen and included the following presentations: Gonzalo Fernandez: ‘An Examination of the Soteriological Role of Yoginīs in Śākta Tantric Śaivism’, Utsa Bose: ‘Translation, Meaning and Metaphor: Two Śākta Readings of a Pandemic in Calcutta’, and Sharvi Maheswari: ‘The Transfer of Energy Among Goddesses: Codification and Transformation in Bhaktapur’s Śākta Traditions’.

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

OCHS Kathmandu Office and Summer University in Nepal

In 2018, Dr Wernicke-Olesen and other affiliates of the Śākta Traditions research programme established a study and research centre in Kathmandu with a focus on manuscript digitisation and fieldwork. The office contains meeting facilities, working desks, digitisation equipment and a growing reference library. MA Gitte Poulsen continues as our Kathmandu Office Manager and Dr Rajan Khatiwoda as the office leader.

The highly successful OCHS Summer University in Kathmandu (summeruni.co.uk) took place at the Yak and Yeti Hotel in August 2024. Around 20 international students attended and many of the participants were Oxford students who are or have been supervised and taught by Fellows of the OCHS. The course will resume in August 2026. The course in 2024 explored topics in Śākta Hinduism, tantric traditions, and goddess worship in the Kathmandu Valley. It combined lectures with excursions to local religious sites, rituals, and traditional local practices. The course aims to bridge theory and practice by building understanding through participation. The course offers unique fieldwork opportunities to students, and for graduate attendees, and it has significantly contributed to their ongoing research endeavours. The course has attracted students across disciplines beyond religious studies (history, sociology, languages, politics, etc.) Lecturers and tutors include Professor Gavin Flood (Oxford), Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen (Oxford), Dr Rajan Khatiwoda (Heidelberg), Dr Silje Lyngar Einarsen (Oslo), Dr Ulrik Lyngs (Oxford), Gitte Poulsen (Aarhus and Oxford), and Laura Anderson (Oxford) as well as local scholars including Professor Kashinath Nyaupane from the Nepal Sanskrit University (NSU) and Manish Manandhar, a famed architect in Kathmandu. The Summer University is ECTS accredited through a collaboration and Memorandum of Understanding with the MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society facilitated by Dr Silje Lyngar Einarsen and Tanja Louise Jakobsen. The Summer University is managed by Gitte Poulsen and Laura Anderson with Dr Wernicke-Olesen and Tanja Louise Jakobsen as consultants.

Network of Hinduism in Dialogue Project Leader: Dr Melanie Barbato

The Network of Hinduism in Dialogue aims at fostering a friendly scholarly community that centres the Hindu traditions in the study of interreligious relations and interfaith dialogue. In 2025, the network has started online meetups to provide an opportunity for discussion and exchange among its global membership. The first guest speaker in March was Shankar Nair who presented on the Muslim encounter with the Upaniṣads. In June, Brian P. Dunn spoke about Hindu and Christian resources for theological reasoning with focus on Rāmānuja’s pramāṇas and the Wesleyan quadrilateral. There was also an in-person meetup in July in Vienna for members who participated in the annual conference of the European Academy of Religion. Project leader Melanie Barbato published an overview article on Hinduism in interreligious relations in Religion Compass and participated in several interfaith gatherings, including the Fijian faith leaders dialogues on the topic of reconciliation in Lami and Suva and the G20 Interfaith Forum in Cape Town. The network team is currently preparing the call for papers for an online symposium on Hindu approaches to dialogue planned for 2026. The network invites new applications for membership through the link on the OCHS project website.

Jaina technologies of the Body Project Leader: Dr Ruth Westoby

Ruth Westoby was appointed the Bhagawan Shri Sumatinath Postdoctoral Fellow in Jaina Studies at OCHS in January 2025 in a three-year post. The position is generously funded by the Jain community. Dr Westoby directs the research project ‘Jaina Technologies of the Body’. This research project aims to collect and analyse the experiences of Jains on religious bodily practices alongside historical textual sources. Jainism, with its emphasis on non-violence ( ahiṃsā ) and purification of the self ( jīva ), offers distinct bodily practices oriented towards cultivation, control and liberation from the body. Important bodily practices include worship, singing, mantra, study, yoga, meditation and fasting. This project focuses on such ‘technologies of the body’ that are based on ideas and beliefs about reproduction and non-reproduction, and bodily practices motivated by celibacy and menstruation management.

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

The objective of this project is to conduct participant interviews with Jain practitioners or practitioners inspired by Jainism, whether renunciant or lay, male, female or third gender, and whether current or former practitioners. These discussions will be analysed alongside Jain texts instructing and theorising bodily practices. The project was approved by Oxford University’s CUREC (Central University Research Ethics Committee) under the reference P0116/RE001 in June 2025, upon which Ruth completed initial fieldwork in Pune, Maharashtra. Under the auspices of the International Jain Summer School Ruth benefited from a rich programme of study and conducted around 20 interviews on menstruation while on the programme and follow up online interviews. The interview programme will continue through the project alongside text-critical studies of the Jain corpus. Practitioner experiences will be analysed alongside Jain and other Indic texts instructing and theorising bodily practices. By combining textual analysis with participant interviews this project aims to bridge historical perspectives with current practices, offering an analysis that combines text-critical historical work with contemporary lived religious practice.

Alongside directing the research project ‘Technologies of the Body’ Ruth is developing a network of Jain Studies at OCHS, including a programme of seminars and lectures. The programme was inaugurated with a lecture by Kshitij Jain in June. Ruth is also bridging Jaina Studies between OCHS and the University of Birmingham’s Jain research programme lead by Marie-Helene Gorisse. Ruth collaborated through chairing a panel at Birmingham University’s conference in memory of Paul Dundas (September 2025) and contributed lecture content to an undergraduate course at Birmingham University.

Complementing the Jain Studies research project, Ruth is researching menstruation more broadly in contemporary spiritual and religious contexts as an Associate Researcher at Inform, King’s College London. Ruth is also working on her book project resulting from her PhD dissertation, Reversing Reproduction in Premodern Yoga . Ruth contributes to the scholarly community and future directions in yoga studies through co-organising the Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana conference to be hosted by CNRS Paris in May 2026 and through her role as book review editor for the peer-reviewed journal Body and Religion , published by Equinox, a three-year term that began in February 2025.

Investment Strategy

These funds are managed on behalf of the OCHS by Sanderson Financial Limited. They are invested in a mix of equity, fixed income, and property funds. The investment adviser is mandated to recommend investments which conform to ethical investment principles as much as is possible and or available within specific asset classes and apply a cautious risk strategy to the overall portfolio, which over the long term provide steady positive income and capital growth.

The investment advisers approach to ethical investment principles is to try, as much as possible, within each asset class to recommend funds to the portfolio which undertake “negative screening” of their investments, thereby minimising the potential of the portfolio being invested in so called “sin stocks” such as companies which profit from the sale of tobacco, gambling and weapons.

Investment Performance and Target Returns

The Committee are happy to report that since the first investment made in October 2016 the Investment Portfolio has seen a net capital growth of 19.62%.

This capital growth has allowed the committee to distribute £61,825 of funds since 2019 to the OCHS to support its scholarship and research activities.

The committee aims to return 3.5% of the total Investment Portfolio on an annual basis to the OCHS to fund scholarships and research activities. This requires it to target annual net capital growth of 5%.

Public benefit

The Trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers and duties and have carried out an annual review of their activities in this regard.

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The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Trustees' report on the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

Financial Review

A statement of financial activities (‘SOFA’) for the year has been produced on page 12 showing movements on unrestricted, restricted and endowment funds. The OCHS received donations of £874,755 (2024: £246,498) during the year. Fee income of £164,110 (2024: £145,591) was received and the charity had costs of £863,697 (2024: £741,304). The net surplus for the year was £276,946 (2024: net deficit of £284,318).

Funds and reserves policy

Unrestricted reserves at 31st March 2025 are showing a surplus of £984,790 (2024: £780,473) with designated reserves showing a surplus of £300,783 (2024: £265,168). After adjusting for fixed assets free reserves are £104,952 (2024: £192,897). The OCHS has plans to increase this surplus with the acquisition of new premises, which will reduce costs and ensure the charity’s long term sustainability.

Future Plans

The OCHS continues to expand and the charity continues to campaign for funds to enable the purchase of new premises in Oxford. This will ensure the OCHS can continue to develop its facilities and increase its student numbers.

Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

The law applicable to charities in England & Wales requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts Reports) Regulations 2008 and trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charity’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Auditors

Wenn Townsend were re-appointed auditors to the OCHS at the Trustees’ meeting.

This report was approved by Trustees on 29[th] October 2025.

______ Shaunaka Rishi Das

- 9 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

- 10 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on pages 20 and 21, the trustees are responsible for the preparation of financial statements which give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with regulations made under section 154 of that Act.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Wenn Townsend Chartered Accountants, Statutory Auditor 30 St Giles Oxford

……….. 2025

Wenn Townsend is eligible to act as an auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

- 11 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2025

----- Start of picture text -----
|||||||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Note|Unrestricted|Designated|Restricted|Endowment|Total|Unrestricted Designated|Restricted|Endowment|Total| |Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds|Funds| |2025|2024| |£|£|£|£|£|£|£|£|£|£| |Incoming from:| |Donations| |-|Other donations|2|656,228|121,983|100,394|-|878,605|133,131|78,817|34,550|-|246,498| |Charitable activities|3|164,110|-|-|-|164,110|145,591|-|-|-|145,591| |Investments|4|98,434|71|(451)|386|98,440|41,065|35|184|421|41,705| |──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|────── ──────| |Total income|918,772|122,054|99,943|386|1,141,155|319,787|78,852|34,734|421|433,794| |──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|────── ──────| |Expenditure on:| |Charitable activities|5|730,487|79,081|56,655|1,472|867,695|649,375|75,378|9,164|7,387|741,304| |──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|────── ──────| |Total expenditure|730,487|79,081|56,655|1,472|867,695|649,375|75,378|9,164|7,387|741,304| |──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|────── ──────| |Net gains/(loss) on investments|10|236|8,438|(625)|(4,563)|3,486|-|(3,727)|6,642|20,277|23,192| |Net income/expenditure|188,521|51,411|42,663|(5,649)|276,946|(329,588)|(253)|32,212|13,311|(284,318)| |Transfer between funds|15,796|(15,796)|-|-|-|344,296|(13,459)|(330,837)|-|-| |──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|────── ──────| |Net movement in funds for the year|204,317|35,615|42,663|(5,649)|276,946|14,708|(13,712)|(298,625)|13,311|(284,318)| |Total funds brought forward at 1 April 2024|780,473|265,168|102,046|216,356|1,364,043|765,765|278,880|400,671|203,045 1,648,361| |──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|──────|────── ──────| |Total funds carried forward at 31 March 2025|984,790|300,783|144,709|210,707|1,640,989|780,473|265,168|102,046|216,356 1,364,043| |══════|══════|══════|══════|══════|══════|══════|══════|══════ ══════|

----- End of picture text -----

- 12 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Balance sheet
At 31 March 2025
Note
2025 2024
£ £ £ £
Fixed assets
Investments 10 321,911 339,944
Tangible assets 11 2,802,880 2,802,263
────── ──────
3,124,791 3,142,207
Current assets
Debtors 12 36,625 33,988
Cash at bank and in hand 67,923 59,848
────── ──────
104,548 93,836
Creditors
Amounts falling due
within one year 13 (176,797) (138,838)
────── ───────
Net current assets (72,249) (45,002)
─────── ──────
Amounts falling due
after one year 14 (1,411,553) (1,733,162)
────── ───────
(1,411,553) (1,733,162)
Net assets 1,640,989 1,364,043
═══════ ══════
Funds
Unrestricted funds 984,790 780,473
Designated 15 300,783 265,168
Restricted funds 16a 144,709 102,046
Endowment funds 16b 16b 210,707 216,356
─────── ──────
Total funds 1,640,989 1,364,043
═══════ ══════

These accounts were approved by the Trustees on 29[th] October 2025

Signed on behalf of the Trustees

Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director

- 13 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Statement of Cash Flow for the year ended 31st March 2025

2025 2024
£ £
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net cash provided by operating activities (analysed below) 8,587 1,511,500
Cash flows from investing activities:
Interest/dividends received 659 7,572
Net cash (transferred in)/withdrawn from investment account 50 (19,650)
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (1,222) (2,536,659)
─────── ───────
Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities (513) (2,547,737)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period 8,074 (1,037,237)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period 59,849 1,097,085
─────── ───────
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period 67,923 59,848
═══════ ═══════
Note:
Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities
2025 2024
£ £
Net movement in funds for the reporting period (as per the statement of
financial activities) 276,946 (284,318)
Adjustments for:
Interest/dividends received (1,641) (8,241)
Depreciation charges 605 605
(Gain)/loss on investments 16,825 (23,194)
Gifted shares into investment portfolio - -
Investment management fees 2,139 1,872
Decrease/(increase) in debtors (2,637) 31,896
(Decrease)/increase in creditors (283,650) 1,792,880
─────── ───────
Net cash provided by operating activities 8,587 1,511,500
═══════ ═══════

- 14 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

1 Summary of significant accounting policies

a) General information and basis of preparation

These accounts have been prepared on an accruals basis and include income and expenditure as they are earned or incurred, rather than as cash is received or paid. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland issued in October 2019, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102), the Charities Act 2011, and UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

The charity constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note.

b) Fund accounting

The Charity's total funds consist of:

c) Incoming resources

All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when the charity is entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. The following specific policies are applied to particular categories of income:

Voluntary income is received by way of donations and gifts and is included in full in the Statement of Financial Activities when receivable. Gifts donated for resale are included as income when they are sold. Donated assets are included at the value to the charity where this can be quantified and a third party is bearing the cost. The value of services provided by volunteers has not been included.

Income from charitable activities is CED online course fees.

Income from investments is included in the year in which it is receivable.

- 15 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

1 Summary of significant accounting policies (continued)

d) Resources expended

Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is reported as part of the expenditure to which it relates. Resources expended are recognised in the year in which they are incurred.

Resources expended comprise the following:

e) Tangible assets and depreciation

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost less residual value of each asset over its expected useful life, as follows:

Fixtures, fittings and equipment - 20% straight line / 25% reducing balance Motor vehicles - 25% reducing balance basis Freehold and long leasehold property - Nil

f) Investments

g) Pension costs

h) Operating leases

i) Going concern

The accounts have been prepared on a going concern basis. The trustees can only consider with reasonable certainty a budgetary period of 12 months from the year end due to the difficulty in securing voluntary income for unrestricted funds.

2 Donations

Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowment
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
£
Deed of covenants
19,702
-
-
-
Individual donations
636,526
118,133
100,394
-
_
_
_
_
656,228
118,133
100,394
-
═════
═════
═════
═════		 2025
Total
£
19,702
855,053
_
874,755
═════		 2024
Total
£
19,862
226,636
_
246,498
═════

- 16 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

3 Income from charitable activities

Income from charitable
activities
Unrestricted Designated
Restricted
Funds
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
Weekend Schools
22,390
-
-
BAP’s lunches
4,002
-
-
Online course
136,352
-
-
Book Publishing
1,366
-
-
_
_
_
164,110
-
-
═════
═════
═════
ncome from investments
Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowment
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
£
Interest receivable
653
71
(451)
386
Dividends receivable
-
-
-
-
Property income
97,781
-
-
-
_
_
_
_
98,434
71
(451)
386
═════
═════
═════
═════		 2025
Total
£
22,390
4,002
136,352
1,366
_
164,110
═════
2025
Total
£
659
-
97,781
_
98,440
═════		 2024
Total
£
6,842
4,488
132,013
2,248
_
145,591
═════
2024
Total
£
6,152
1,420
34,133
_
41,705
═════

4 Income from investments

5 Charitable activities

Charitable activities Charitable activities
Unrestricted **Designated ** **Restricted ** Endowment 2025 2024
Funds Funds Funds Funds Total Total
£ £ £ £ £ £
Staff costs 267,548 - 6,222 - 273,770 249,589
Lectures, scholarships and grants 166,357 78,999 49,765 - 295,121 218,522
Consultancy fees 21,642 - - - 21,642 27,115
Rent, rates and service charges 82,913 - - - 82,913 71,841
Insurance – professional indemnity 583 - - - 583 557
Insurance – general 10,351 - - - 10,351 5,792
Repairs and maintenance 8,889 - - - 8,889 8,789
Printing, postage and stationery 1,364 - - - 1,364 2,190
Telephone 2,062 - - - 2,062 1,624
Travelling and motor expenses 3,835 - - - 3,835 5,649
General expenses 36,686 - - - 36,686 19,207
Investment Management Charges - 82 668 1,472 2,174 1,870
Interest and bank charges 90,192 - - - 90,192 90,760
Advertising and marketing 4,234 - - - 4,234 5,544
Governance costs (note 6) 33,831 - - - 33,831 32,255
───── ───── ───── ───── ───── ─────
730,487 75,131 56,607 1,472 863,697 741,304
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════ ═════ ═════

- 17 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

6 Governance costs

Governance costs
Unrestricted Designated Restricted
Endowment
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
£
Professional fees
27,814
-
-
-
Audit fees
5,412
-
-
-
Depreciation
605
-
-
-
_
_
_
_
33,831
-
-
-
═════
═════
═════
═════		 2025
Total
£
27,814
5,412
605
_
33,831
═════		 2024
Total
£
25,263
6,388
605
_
32,255
═════

7 Trustees and key management personnel remuneration and expenses

No Trustee received or waived any remuneration during the year (2024: £Nil).

The Trustees/director received reimbursement of expenses totalling £1,465 (2024: £1,067).

The Charity considers its key management personnel to comprise the Trustees and the Director, Mr Shaunaka Rishi Das.

Mr Shaunaka Rishi Das did not receive any remuneration during the year (2024: £Nil).

8 Taxation

The OCHS is a registered Charity and is not liable to income tax or corporation tax on income derived from its charitable activities as it falls within the various exemptions available to registered charities.

9 Employees

Number of employees

The average monthly numbers of employees (including the trustees) during the year, calculated on the basis of full time equivalents, was as follows:

Administration, Continuing Education and Academic Staff
Employment costs
Wages and salaries
National insurance contributions
Pension contributions		 2025
9
═════
2025
£
251,523
18,099
4,148
_
273,770
═════		 2024
8
═════
2024
£
229,533
16,202
3,854
_
249,589
═════

No members of staff received total employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) of more than £60,000 (2024: nil).

- 18 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

10 Investments

----- Start of picture text -----
||||| |---|---|---|---| |Investment portfolio|Cash|Quoted| |Reserves|Investments|Total| |£|£|£| |Market value| |As at 1 April 2024|28,497|311,447|339,944| |Cash transferred in|12,500|-|12,500| |Cash withdrawn|(12,550)|-|(12,550)| |Net disposals|(21,224)|21,244|20| |Increase/(decrease) in market value|-|(16,825)|(16,825)| |Interest Received|200|-|200| |Dividends Received|761|-|761| |Management Charges|(2,139)|-|(2,139)| |─────|─────|─────| |As at 31 March 2025|6,045|315,866|321,911| |═════|═════|═════| |Market value of| |UK quoted investments|321,911| |Overseas quoted investments|-| |_| |321,911| |═════|

----- End of picture text -----

11 Tangible fixed assets

----- Start of picture text -----
|||||| |---|---|---|---|---| |Fixtures,| |Leasehold fittings and|Freehold| |property|equipment|Property|Total| |£|£|£|£| |Cost| |At 1st April 2024|265,000|44,543|2,536,659|2,846,202| |Additions|-|1,222|-|1,222| |───────|───────|─────── ───────| |At 31st March 2025|265,000|45,765|2,536,659|2,847,424| |───────|───────|─────── ───────| |Depreciation| |At 1st April 2024|-|43,939|-|43,939| |Charge for the period|-|605|-|605| |───────|───────|─────── ───────| |At 31st March 2025|-|45,544|-|45,544| |───────|───────|─────── ───────| |Net book value| |At 31st March 2025|265,000|1,221|2,536,659|2,802,880| |═══════|═══════|═══════ ═══════| |At 31st March 2024|265,000|604|2,536,659|2,802,263| |═══════|═══════|═══════ ═══════|

----- End of picture text -----

The library collection has been gifted to the Charity and has no cost or value in the financial statements. The Trustees deem the value of the library to total £200,000 but no formal valuation has been obtained as the Trustees feel that the cost of such a valuation would outweigh any benefit. No depreciation is provided on the charity’s leasehold property, which is held on a long lease, or freehold property as the residual value of the properties is equal or greater than their carrying value. The properties are maintained in good condition ensuring their value does not diminish.

- 19 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

12 Debtors

Trade debtors
Prepayments and accrued income
Other debtors
13
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Trade creditors
Other taxes and social security costs
Accruals and deferred income		 2025
£
14,753
19,859
2,013
_
36,625
═════
2025
£
38,812
69,959
68,026
_
176,797
═════		 2024
£
12,480
21,506
-
_
33,986
═════
2024
£
38,868
21,091
78,879
_
138,838
═════

Included within accruals and deferred income is £16,783 (2024: £20,460) relating to income received in advance for courses/events held in the year ended 31st March 2026.

14 Creditors: amounts falling due after one year

2025 2024
£ £
Loans 1,411,553 1,733,162
_ _
1,411,553 1,733,162
═════ ═════

- 20 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2024

15 Designated funds

2025 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfers 31 March
2024 2025
£ £ £ £ £
Shivdasani Fellowship - 16,277 (12,173) (4,104) -
Khaitan Fund - 20,000 (10,923) (9,077) -
Gopal & Elizabeth Krishna Fund 123,705 - - - 123,705
Gopal & Elizabeth Krishna Endowment 10,291 199 (175) - 10,316
Gosvami India Trip Fund 1,000 - - - 1,000
Sakta Research Programme (6,393) 4,608 (12,908) - (14,693)
Library Equipment 1,340 2,200 (1,250) - 2,290
Janaui Judith Claudine Held Fund 15,856 - - - 15,856
Gosvami Project 35,724 2,988 (3,330) - 35,382
Research Funds Academics 3,009 20,694 (790) - 22,913
CED Development Fund 16,108 3,794 - - 19,902
Academic Research Endowment Fund 20,995 8,290 - - 29,285
Journal of Hindu Studies Profit Share 8,630 5,228 (1,135) (2,615) 10,108
Bhagavata Purana Research Project 17,620 - - - 17,620
Oxford Kirtan Funds 285 - - - 285
Nepal Summer School 8,704 44,183 - - 19,832
Fellowship – Surender M Bahl 7,000 - (3,010) - 3,990
E & G Krishna Estate (61) - - - (61)
Nainka’s Bursary for Kashmiri Saivism
and Kashmir Hindu Studies 275 - (275) - -
Estate of Late Dr Bharat Kumar Upadhyaya 1,080 20 (57) - 1,043
Donations India Administrator - 2,010 - - 2,010
────── ────── ────── ────── ──────
265,168 130,492 (79,081) (15,796) 300,783
══════ ══════ ══════ ══════ ══════
2024 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfers 31 March
2023 2024
£ £ £ £ £
Shivdasani Fellowship - 17,764 (13,739) (4,025) -
Khaitan Fund - 20,000 (13,469) (6,531) -
Gopal & Elizabeth Krishna Fund 123,705 - - - 123,705
Gopal & Elizabeth Krishna Endowment 9,487 32 772 - 10,291
Gosvami India Trip Fund 1,000 - - - 1,000
Sakta Research Programme (2,989) 1,856 (4,836) (424) (6,393)
Library Equipment 340 2,400 (1,400) - 1,340
Janaui Judith Claudine Held Fund 15,856 - - - 15,856
Gosvami Project 34,581 10,899 (9,756) - 35,724
Research Funds Academics 3,709 - (700) - 3,009
CED Development Fund 30,627 (14,519) - - 16,108
Academic Research Endowment Fund 25,740 - (4,745) - 20,995
Journal of Hindu Studies Profit Share 6,150 4,959 - (2,479) 8,630
Bhagavata Purana Research Project 17,620 - - - 17,620
Oxford Kirtan Funds 285 - - - 285
Nepal Summer School 3,038 34,458 (28,792) - 8,704
Fellowship – Surender M Bahl 7,000 - - - 7,000
E & G Krishna Estate 2,456 - (2,517) - (61)
Nainka’s Bursary for Kashmiri Saivism
and Kashmir Hindu Studies 275 - - - 275
Estate of Late Dr Bharat Kumar Upadhyaya
-		 1,003 77 - 1,080
────── ────── ────── ────── ──────
278,880 78,852 (79,105) (13,459) 265,168
══════ ══════ ══════ ══════ ══════

- 20 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

15 Designated funds (continued)

Shivdasani Visiting Fellowship

The Shivdasani Visiting Fellowship is provided to the OCHS by a generous benefaction from Mr Azad Shivdasani, businessman and philanthropist.

The Shivdasani Visiting Fellowship was offered to support study in any area of the arts, humanities, or the social sciences relevant to the study of Hinduism.

This Fellowship was awarded to a scholar of Indian nationality and a holder of an academic position in an institute of higher education, in India or elsewhere; and the applicant needs to be working in an area relevant to the concerns and remit of the OCHS.

J.P. and Beena Khaitan Fellowship

The J.P. and Beena Khaitan Fellowship was provided to the OCHS by a generous benefaction from Mr Ajay and Mrs Mandira Khaitan in memory of Mr Khaitan’s late parents.

This Fellowship was given to scholars who furthered the research, publishing and teaching provided by the Centre and worked in an area relevant to the concerns and remit of the OCHS.

Gopal & Elizabeth Krishna Fund

The Gopal & Elizabeth Krishna Fund is provided to the OCHS by a generous benefaction from Mr Gopal and Mrs Elizabeth Krishna, who are long term supporters of the centre.

It is their desire that these funds are utilised by the centre in carrying out its academic, research and continuing education activities over the next several years.

- 34 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

16a Restricted funds

2025
Scholarship
Bhumi project
New home for OCHS
Ramaiah Alagappan Bursary
Opportunity Scholarship
Parvathi Foundation
Tristan Elby
Tagore Centre
Dr. Charu Chandra Dasgupta Memorial Bursary
Bhagwan Sumantinath Jain Post		 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfer 31 March
2024
2025
£
£
£
£
5,291
44,353
(41,715)
-
7,929
334
8,250
(7,250)
-
1,334
-
201
-
-
201
10,375
102
(76)
-
10,401
13,500
-
-
-
13,500
49,570
11,936
(349)
-
61,156
6,888
(873)
(47)
-
5,868
5,292
147
(336)
-
5,103
10,896
202
(6,881)
-
4,217
-
35,000
-
-
35,000
_
_
_
_ _
102,046
99,318
(56,655)
- 144,709
═════
═════
═════
══════════		 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfer 31 March
2024
2025
£
£
£
£
5,291
44,353
(41,715)
-
7,929
334
8,250
(7,250)
-
1,334
-
201
-
-
201
10,375
102
(76)
-
10,401
13,500
-
-
-
13,500
49,570
11,936
(349)
-
61,156
6,888
(873)
(47)
-
5,868
5,292
147
(336)
-
5,103
10,896
202
(6,881)
-
4,217
-
35,000
-
-
35,000
_
_
_
_ _
102,046
99,318
(56,655)
- 144,709
═════
═════
═════
══════════
_
144,709
═════
2024
Scholarship
Bhumi project
New home for OCHS
Ramaiah Alagappan Bursary
Opportunity Scholarship
Parvathi Foundation
Tristan Elby
Tagore Centre
Dr. Charu Chandra Dasgupta Memorial Bursary		 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfer 31 March
2023
2024
£
£
£
£
4,270
7,171
(6,150)
-
5,291
334
-
-
-
334
330,837
-
- (330,837)
-
9,570
967
(162)
-
10,375
13,500
-
-
-
13,500
35,167
16,137
(1,734)
-
49,570
6,993
851
(1,056)
-
6,788
-
5,317
(25)
-
5,292
-
10,933
(37)
-
10,896
_
_
_
_ _
400,671
41,376
(9,164) (330,837) 102,046
═════
═════
═════
═════ ═════		 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfer 31 March
2023
2024
£
£
£
£
4,270
7,171
(6,150)
-
5,291
334
-
-
-
334
330,837
-
- (330,837)
-
9,570
967
(162)
-
10,375
13,500
-
-
-
13,500
35,167
16,137
(1,734)
-
49,570
6,993
851
(1,056)
-
6,788
-
5,317
(25)
-
5,292
-
10,933
(37)
-
10,896
_
_
_
_ _
400,671
41,376
(9,164) (330,837) 102,046
═════
═════
═════
═════ ═════
_
102,046
═════

The Scholarship fund and Ramaiah Alagappan Bursary represents monies collected to fund student bursaries and scholarships.

The Bhumi project fund represents monies collected to fund our Bhumi project.

The New home for OCHS fund represents monies donated to the Charity to contribute to the planned purchase of new premises.

The Opportunity Scholarship was established to support a doctoral or post-doctoral student.

- 21 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

16b Endowment funds

2025 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfers 31 March
2024 2025
£ £ £ £ £
Giri Scholarship 216,356 (4,177) (1,472)
-		 210,707
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
2024 1 April Incoming Outgoing Transfers 31 March
2023 2024
£ £ £ £ £
Giri Scholarship 203,045 20,698 (7,387)
0		 216,356
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════ ═════

The Giri Scholarship is an endowment fund established with an initial donation of £200,000. Donations into the fund constitute a permanent and everlasting gift to the Centre towards establishing an endowed scholarship. It is intended that by 2041 the total donations to the Giri Scholarship fund will be £890,000.

17 Analysis of net assets between funds

2025 Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowment
2025
Funds Funds Funds Fund
Total
£ £ £ £
£
Fund balances at 31 March 2025
were represented by:
Fixed assets 2,468,592 300,783 144,709 210,707 3,124,791
Current assets 104,548 - - -
104,548
Liabilities (1,588,350) - - - (1,588,350)
_ _ _ _ _
Total net assets 984,790 300,783 144,709 210,707 1,640,989
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
═════
2024 Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowment
2024
Funds Funds Funds Fund
Total
£ £ £ £
£
Fund balances at 31 March 2024
were represented by:
Fixed assets 2,558,637 265,168 102,046 216,356 3,142,207
Current assets 93,836 - - -
93,836
Liabilities (1,872,000) - - - (1,872,000)
_ _ _ _ _
Total net assets 780,473 265,168 102,046 216,356 1,364,043
═════ ═════ ═════ ═════
═════

- 22 -

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Notes to the accounts (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2025

18 Going concern

The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies is reliant on the continued support of its benefactors. The charity’s property fundraising campaign is continuing. The acquisition of new premises will reduce costs and help to ensure the long term sustainability of the charity.

19 Operating leases

A lease on the charity’s charitable premises at 13/15 Magdalen Street Oxford was signed on 8th April 2016, covering a period of 5 years from 24th June 2013, at an annual rate of £45,000. The charity’s total future minimum lease payments are as follows:-

A lease renewal was signed during the 19/20 financial year at an annual rate of £55,035 with a 3 year break clause.

Land & Buildings
<1 year
Between 2 and 5 years		 2025
£
-
-
_
-
═════		 2024
£
45,749
-
_
45,749
═════

20. Related party

An interest free loan of £1,300,000 was received on 15 November 2024, an overseas charitable foundation. The loan is repayable on 14 November 2029 although

early payment is allowed. The funds were used to partly repay the £1,700,000 loan used to purchase the charity’s freehold premises.

- 23 -