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: 12 July 2020
End Date: 20 September 2020
Day: Every Sunday
Time: 10 am – 1 pm EST
Quarter: Summer 2020
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
