Canonical Generators for the Cohomology of Moduli of Parabolic Bundles on Curves

We determine generators of the rational cohomology algebras of moduli spaces of parabolic vector bundles on a curve, under some `primality' conditions on the parabolic datum. These generators are canonical in a precise sense. Our results are new even for usual vector bundles (i.e., vector bundles without parabolic structure) whose rank is greater than 2 and is coprime to the degree; in this case, they are generalizations of a theorem of Newstead on the moduli of vector bundles of rank 2 and odd degree.