Religion-Hinduism

Surveys the Hindu religious heritage from pre-history to the 17th century; includes the Jain and Sikh protestant movements.

An investigation of yoga practice throughout history from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Topics include yoga's origins in ancient India, systematic yoga theories in Buddhism and Hinduism, Tantric Yoga, and the medicalization and globalization of Yoga in the modern period. Students' readings and writing assignments are supplemented throughout with practical instruction in yoga.

This course revisits the lives and conceptual legacies of notable female philosophers in Hinduism. In particular, we track a historiographical problem, a question of genre, and a conceptual question: how shall we recover women¿s voices? What link between certain genres of thought and the role of female philosophers in history? What relationships between gender, embodiment, subjectivity and experience?

This course will explore Hindu views of the relationship between human, natural, and divine worlds, as well as the work of contemporary environmentalists in India. We will read texts both classical and modern (from the Bhagavad Gita to the writings of Gandhi), and will consider case studies of Hindu responses to issues such as wildlife conservation, pollution, deforestation, and industrial agriculture.

Examines Jain history, belief, and practice. Prerequisite: RELG 1040, RELH 2090, 2110, or instructor permission.

Common to all the world¿s philosophies is engagement with the claim that all that exists in the universe is ultimately one, whether in one¿s awareness or in actual fact. This course examines how Hindus and Buddhists have articulated this idea, basing the same in detailed analysis of one¿s subjective awareness of reality, in an examination of the nature of existence independent of one¿s experience of it, and on the basis of scriptural revelation.

Yoga is practiced by millions of people across the world and comes in an astonishing variety of forms. Historically, yoga has roots in ancient Indian practices of asceticism and meditation. But how are these practices related to yoga as it practiced today? This seminar will trace the history of yoga from its earliest origins to the present. Readings will include both primary sources (in translation) and works of contemporary scholarship.

The purpose of this course is to study the phenomenon of religious violence in one geographic and cultural context. We will examine the roles of religion and violence in Indian political life from the British period until contemporary times, and through the Indian example, we will explore current questions and problems regarding the relationship between religion and politics.

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Hinduism.

This course examines western encounters with India by reading the fiction and travel writing of Europeans, expatriate Indians, and Americans in India. In reading such works, the course will explore the place of India in the European and American literary and cultural imagination.

Examines a major genre of Hindu religious narrative. Genre varies but may include the epics; the mythology of the Puranas; the 'didactic' Kathasaritsagara and Pancatantra; the hagiographies of the great Hindu saints; and the modern novel. Prerequisite: RELG 1040, RELH 2090, RELH 2110, or instructor permission.

This course involves the close reading of selected passages of the Hindu Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Students will read the primary sources in translation (from one or both epics), along with relevant secondary scholarly works. An advanced knowledge of Indian religions and/or Hinduism is presumed of students wishing to enroll in this course.

This course offers an advanced survey of the "six schools" of Indian philosophy. The purpose of the course is to develop a strong familiarity with the major schools of Hindu thought and the major philosophical concerns they addressed, and students will be asked to develop an historical understanding of the relevant authors and traditions. We will read primary texts in translation, along with selected secondary sources.

As yoga has risen to global prominence, the scholarly study of yoga has flourished. This course offers an introduction to this scholarship, as well as an overview of the theory and practice of yoga from its ancient past to the present day. The course will focus primarily on historically Hindu traditions, though some attention will devoted to parallel traditions from Buddhism and Jainism.

This course examines Hindu-Muslim interactions in South Asia, bridging the long-standing gap between Hindu and Islamic studies while introducing critical issues currently facing the historiography of Hindu-Muslim relations. Special topics within the ambit of Hindu-Muslim encounters will be explored in depth, with a particular emphasis on intellectual interactions between traditions of Hindu and Islamic philosophy.

This course examines philosophical debates of Hindu and Buddhist authors from the time of the founding of Buddhism to the medieval period. Primary sources in translation and secondary, scholarly sources are examined in this course.Prerequisite: Significant prior exposure to Hinduism and/or Buddhism.

The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive introduction to Indian tantric Saivism, beginning with the proto-tantric traditions of the "Outer Way" (atiarga) and including the increasingly goddess orientated and increasingly non-dualistic developments evidenced by the myriad traditions of the "Way of Mantras" (mantramarga). Students who wish to take this course are expected to have a deep familiarity with Hindu traditions.

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new course in the subject of Hinduism.

This course will explore the intellectual and social history of Vedanta, one of the most influential schools of Indian philosophy. We will trace its rise to prominence from the early classical period, when it was one of several competing schools, to the colonial period, when it came to be identified by many as the essence of Hinduism.

This tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: aesthetics, or the alamkarasastra.

This tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: the stotra genre or that of Indian devotional poetry.

This tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: philosophical literature.

Tutorial constitutes a reading course in Sanskrit, the classical language of India.  Students will read the original texts and translate them into English, analyzing and interpreting the materials in light of the Indian tradition of commentary and exegesis and in light of contemporary scholarly and other analyses of the relevant subject matter: Saiva Religion.