Learning Outcome:-
- Awaken the archetypal characters from the Mahabharata in one’s own life through dialogue and reflective activities
- Develop greater insights into one’s own psyche and patterns of the mind through an experiential engagement with the Mahabharata
- Experience yoga as an integral science beyond postures (asanas) or breathing techniques (pranayama).
- To develop the sakhi bhava (friendliness) and sakshi bhava (meditative listening) to be able to listen to our own self and the others from a deeper space
- To evoke healing processes within oneself
In this course, we explore our psyche using stories of characters from the Mahabharata, with an aim to bring clarity and meaning in our life. This 11-week course requires a pre-work of reading select stories from the Mahabharata and writing reflections before attending each session.
This course is not a didactic course on Mahabharata but enables one to delve into one’s psyche using the Mahabharata as a mirror into one’s mental processes. The course is dialogic and calls for a willingness to be self-reflective, share of oneself, and listen to others sensitively. This course is not recommended for anyone who is going through treatment for any psychological illness.
Required/Elective: Required
Prerequisites: Admission to the program of study
Faculty/Instructor: Sri Raghu Ananthanarayanan
Area of Study:- Yoga Studies
Start Date:- 14 April 2021
End Date:- 23 June 2021
Day:- Wednesday
Time:- 09:30 pm EST – 11:00 pm EST
Quarter Offered: Spring 2021
Students will gain a historical overview of German Indology from its origins to the present. They will read basic source texts for German attitudes towards ancient and modern India, especially the Vedic period, Brahmanism, and Hinduism. They will learn how German nationalism, theories of racial supremacy, the quest for Aryan identity, and Protestantism and Lutheran anti-Semitism shaped the discipline of Indology. German Indology’s role in fostering National Socialism and the treatment of Jewish Indologists will also be discussed. Students will also be expected to read and analyze excerpts from Rammohan Roy, Dayanand Saraswati, Tilak, and Ambedkar in light of their knowledge of Indology.
Areas of Study: History and Methods
Required/ Elective: Elective
Prerequisites: Admission into a Program of Study/ Must have completed Orientation to Hindu Studies or Concurrently enrolled in OTHS
Instructor: Dr. Joydeep Bagchee
Start Date: TBD
End Date: TBD
Day: TBD
Time: TBD
Quarter: TBD
Course Content:
- Tenses: Present, past, and future; in both Parasmaipada and Atmanepada forms
- The Imperative mood, in both Parasmaipada and Atmanepada forms
- The third declension / Instrumental case
- Comparing things
- Cardinal and ordinal forms of numbers
- Synonyms and antonyms
- Past participles, gerunds, infinitives
- Prefixes, Interrogative words
- Simple sentences, stories, and conversations
- Pairing words to combine simple sentences
- Expanding the vocabulary through categories of words
Learning Objectives:
In this course, students will be able to:
- Expand vocabulary and sentence structure;
- Develop the ability to use moderately complex expressions;
- Engage in simple reading and conversation; and
- Combine words and phrases for short narratives.
Required / Elective: Required
Area of Study: Sanskrit Studies
Program of Study: Certificate Program in Sanskrit Proficiency (CP SP)
Prerequisites: Successful completion of SAN-1001
Faculty / Instructor: Sri ChandraShekhar Raghu
Start Date: TBD
End Date: TBD
Time: TBD
Day: TBD
Quarter Offered: TBD
Course Structure
This course is structured in the form of one Quarter (10 weeks, 1.5 hours per week). Students will take an exam at the end of the course during the 11th week. Structured innovatively using the curriculum and textbooks designed by Samskrita Bharati USA (SBusa.org), the course will be based upon material contained in the SB – USA – published books, “AYANAM” & “SAARINEE”, augmented with other appropriate course content.
This course is structured to allow a beginner level student to start listening, writing, and reading the DevanAgari Script through a streamlined set of exercises.
Learning Objectives: In this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the origin of various sounds in Sanskrit.
- Pronouncing and writing the Sanskrit alphabets that are single letters, both vowels, and consonants.
- Pronouncing and writing the Sanskrit combination letters and using them in forming words.
- Reciting simple Sanskrit verses with the correct pronunciation.
- Reading and writing simple prose passages in Devanagari and build basic vocabulary.
- Completing simple exercises and gaining the right skills required for further studies in Sanskrit.
The course fee includes the cost of tuition, 2 textbooks, and the shipping & handling cost of the textbooks.
Required / Elective: Required
Program of Study: Beginner Level Certificate Program in Sanskrit Proficiency
Area of Study: Sanskrit Studies
Prerequisites: None
Faculty / Instructor: Sri Chandrashekhar Raghu
Start Date: 12 April 2021
End Date: 21 June 2021
Day: Monday
Time: 08:00 pm EST to 09:30 pm EST
Quarter Offered: Spring 2021
Course content:
An overview of the central theme of the Vedas and their classification as Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma, and Atharva and structural classification as Saṁhitā, Brāhmaṇa, Āraṇyaka, and Upaniṣad along with a brief introduction to the allied literature of the Vedas are discussed in this course. The Hindu philosophy of life and worldview that intrinsically supports diversity and universal wellbeing, which has enabled the Vedic culture to sustain itself in the face of considerable adversity is also explored.
In this course students will be able to:
- Understand the landscape of Vedic and allied literature
- Understand the Vedic worldview through its philosophy of life
- Recognize Life as a continuous framework for the evolution of all beings of the world
- Reconcile seemingly conflicting and diverse ideas sustained by the Vedic culture
Area of Study: Sanskrit Studies
Required / Elective: Required
Prerequisites: Admission into the Masters’ Certificate or MA in Sanskrit Program
Faculty / Instructor: Prof M A Alwar, Prof Ramanujachar
Quarter Offered: Fall 2020
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 Thursday
Start Date:- April 15, 2021
End Date:- June 24, 2021
Time:- 09:00 pm EST -10:30 pm EST
Quarter: Spring 2021
Learning Outcome
This course will address four main obstacles students face in writing papers: (1) finding a suitable topic for their paper, (2) developing that topic, (3) ensuring that the topic has a suitable scope for a paper, and (4) ensuring that sufficient literature exists on which to build their thesis. It will also teach them the essential skills for writing a persuasive and well-supported paper: (1) formulating the central inquiry of the paper, (2) developing arguments and supporting them with research, (3) structuring the paper and providing suitable headings and internal connections, (4) creating a bibliography, summarizing existing literature, and situating the paper’s thesis vis-à-vis existing scholarship.
Area of Study: Hindu Studies Foundations
Required / Elective: Required/ Must have completed or Concurrently enrolled into Orientation to Hindu Studies
Faculty: Dr. Joydeep Bagchee
Day: Every Thursday
Start Date: 9 July 2020
End Date: 17 September 2020
Time: 10:00 am -01:00 pm EST
Quarter: Summer 2020
Course content:
The course provides an overview of the structure, content, and methodology used in Aṣṭādhyāyī for describing a language. It also explores the computational model of the treatise and introduces the knowledge tradition of vyākaraṇa prior to and post Pāṇini. The course also introduces the alternate arrangement of Aṣṭādhyāyī in the treatise named Siddhānta-kaumudī that focuses on the conclusions of Pāṇini’s sūtras with an illustration of the sections related to the technical terms and rules of interpretation of the sutras.
In this course the students will be able to:
- Understand the architecture of Aṣṭādhyāyī as a treatise of language structure
- Learn how to interpret Ashtadhyayi text independently
- Comprehend the computational model of Sanskrit grammar as articulated by Aṣṭādhyāyī
- Appreciate the robustness and holistic excellence of the treatise
- Recognize the convergences and divergences between the Aṣṭādhyāyī and Siddhānta-kaumudī models and the rationale for such alternate models
- Understand the philosophy of language that provided the concept of apoddhāra based on which Pāṇini formulated his Aṣṭādhyāyī
Area of Study:- Sanskrit Studies
Required / Elective: Required
Prerequisites: Admission into the Masters’ Certificate or MA in Sanskrit Program
Faculty / Instructor: Dr. Tilaka Rao
Quarter Offered: Summer 2020
