This course provides a comprehensive explication of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya’s philosophy. Students will gain an understanding of his views of phenomenal reality, perception, scripture, revelation, the soul, transmigration, dharma, creation, nescience, and ultimate realization. They will be introduced to his thought systematically, showing how he develops his hermeneutics and argues for the cogency of the non-dual (advaita) standpoint vis-a-vis alternative viewpoints.
Area of Study: Text and Traditions
Required/ Elective: Required
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Vishwa Adluri
Students will read several of the most important primary sources for bhakti. They will gain an understanding of the philosophy underlying the concept of bhakti and how bhakti enables moksha i.e. salvation for the individual soul. The course will also provide a basic introduction to concepts such as non-dualism, ontology, cosmology, emanation, procession, and the relation of the macroscopic universe to the individual. Students will simultaneously gain an appreciation for different textual genres and how poetics corresponds to the fourth puruṣārtha of mokṣa.
Area of Study: Text and Traditions
Required/ Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Vishwa Adluri
Learning Outcomes:
The course covers a brief introduction to the text, its compositional history, some text-historical scholarship ranging from Deussen to Hacker, and controversies in contemporary scholarship. The major portion of the course will be devoted to understanding the structure of the text, exposition of key themes and the logical disputation of rival views. At the end of this course, students will gain: (1) a good grasp of the philosophical textual tradition of Hinduism: Upaniṣads, Brahmasūtras and the Bhagavadgītā; (2) an understanding of the Brahmasūtras: their comprehensive theory of Brahman and the rigorous logic underlying it; and (3) an overview of the reception of the text within the tradition and in recent critical scholarship and the issues raised in these contexts.
Area of Study: Text and Traditions
Required/ Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Vishwa Adluri
Learning Outcomes:
Readings for the course will demonstrate the complexity of being human, being ethical, and exploring the ultimate meaning of life. Although the course is designed as an overview, we will focus on crucial issues concerning social justice: inequalities in income, privilege, caste, access to resources and education, and the consequences of bad governments and individual greed. The course is based on P. V. Kane’s comprehensive work History of Dharmaśāstra.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
(1) Understand the breadth and depth of the textual tradition of dharma
(2) Know key texts, their chronology, key concepts and the debates surrounding them;
(3) Learn how to read, interpret and research based on primary texts; and
(4) Knowledgeably draw on the tradition for understanding contemporary issues.
Area of Study: Hindu Studies Foundations
Required/ Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Completion of History of Dharmaśāstras I
Instructor: Dr. Vishwa Adluri
Quarter Offered: TBD
An overview and insight into the design of the curriculum offered by the Hindu University of America. A survey of the central ideas of Hinduism – covering an Ontology of key Sanskrit terms and the principal ideas that are central to the cosmology, practice, and expressions of Sanatana Dharma. The course – orientation to Hindu studies- will include reflections and perspectives on these core concepts, using selected readings from source texts such as the Vedas, Upaniṣhads, Sutras, Itihaasa, Bhagavad-Gītā, Purāṇas and Dharma-Śhāstras. The Hindu world-view based on Dharma with its emphasis on duties and responsibilities and sustainability of life will be contrasted with contemporary ideologies and their focus on rights and privileges, competition and survival of the fittest. The distinction between a discourse of knowledge and a discourse of power will be drawn out.
In this course students will be able to:
- Explore various options and trajectories available within the Hindu Studies Program
- Distinguish the central ideas and concepts that constitute the Foundations of Hindu Dharma; Reflect on the Hindu Studies Foundations area.
- Inquire into and evaluate different elective areas of study and Courses offered: Sanskrit Studies, Texts and Traditions, History and Method, Post-Colonial Hindu studies, and Conflict and Peace studies.
- Distinguish between pathways towards a deep study of Hindu thought, or towards deep engagement with western thought from a Hindu perspective
- Discover and Create customized pathways for engagement with the Hindu Studies curricula
Area of Study: Hindu Studies Foundations
Prerequisites: This course is a recommended prerequisite for all students who wish to enter into the Graduate program.
Faculty/Instructor: Kalyan Viswanathan (along with others)
Day:- Every Friday
Start Date:- July 16, 2021
End Date:- September 24, 2021
Time:- 09:00 pm EST -10:30 pm EST
Quarter: Summer 2021
Thorough knowledge of the extent and divisions of the Mahābhārata; its different editions; and reading and working with its critical edition. This course will also prepare students to read the Mahābhārata thoughtfully, using the tools of philosophy, logical inquiry, hermeneutics, and poetic theory. Students will learn to locate the Mahābhārata within a textual tradition extending backwards into the Vedic Saṃhitās and forward into the Purāṇas and Āgamas. They will also develop an appreciation for why, even today, this text continues to be foundational for the living tradition of Hinduism.
Areas of Study: Text and Traditions
Required/ Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Successfully completed Mahabharata – I / Admission into Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Vishwa Adluri
Quarter:- Spring 2021
Day: Every Saturday
Time: 10:00 am EST -01:00 pm EST
Start Date: 10th April 2021
End Date: 26th June 2021
Students will apply theoretical tools developed within psychoanalysis by Freud and Lacan which will allow them to approach the text self-critically. We shall read the entire text, analyzing some key passages from literary and philosophical perspectives that also reveal who we have become and who we wish to be. Students will learn to appreciate the Rāmāyaṇa as a profound character study, exploring the relation of the individual to society and to dharma. We will read extensive sections of the narrative, discuss and engage with topics that concerned commentators and explore the limitations of modernist critiques of Rāmāyaṇa and contemporary Indian society based on this text.
Area of Study: Text and Traditions
Required/ Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study
Instructor: Dr. Vishwa Adluri
