Category: Continuing Education

Sanskrit Kickstarter

Sanskrit Kickstarter

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A Sanskrit Kickstarter: 15–16 March

Embark on a transformative journey into the heart of Sanskrit – the language of the Gods.

This immersive online weekend school welcomes all levels, from absolute beginners to seasoned practitioners.

Delve into the rich, meditative depths of this ancient language, the cornerstone of Indian history, science, religion, and culture. Explore the elegant Devanāgarī script, learn authentic pronunciation, and unlock the layers of meaning and grammar that make Sanskrit so captivating.

Course page

Sessions

History of Sanskrit
Tutor: Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

An Early Morning Hymn to Śiva
Tutor: Prof. Gavin Flood

Speaking Sanskrit
Tutor: Dr Premraj Neupane

Found in Translation
Tutor: Dr Zoë Slatoff

Sunday Morning Mantra
Tutor: Gaiea Sanskrit

A Mantra to Śiva
Tutor: Prof. Gavin Flood

Sound, Silence, and Script: The Sacred Syllable OM in Early India
Tutor: Prof. Finn Moore Gerety

The Forest in the Trees
Tutor: Dr Zoë Slatoff

Complimentary Zoom Sessions

As an extra thank you, enrolment in the Sanskrit Kickstarter gives you free access to next term’s (May–June) five campus-wide Zoom Sessions on a variety of related topics.

Online via Zoom

Saturday 15–Sunday 16 March 2025
11.00am–5.30pm with breaks between each session.

(Recordings will be made available for any sessions you may miss)

Enrolment Fee: £345

Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law with Prof. Patrick Olivelle

Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law with Prof. Patrick Olivelle

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MASTERCLASS 2024

Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law with Prof. Patrick Olivellev

26 May–23 June 2024

You may recall last year we held a very successful masterclass with Prof. Gavin Flood on Tantra. The combination of a hugely important and popular topic with a globally-leading scholar proved irresistible!

So after long and careful planning, we are delighted to offer this year’s Masterclass: Dharmaśāstra and Hindu Law presented by Prof. Patrick Olivelle. See below for more information on Prof. Olivelle’s many qualifications.

In this series, we will ask:

Was there a dharma before the Dharmaśāstras?
What is law?
How do we resolve disputes?
How do we live a good life?
How do we sustain order?

Each Masterclass is followed by a Q&A in which we discuss:

History of dharma and Dharmaśāstra,
How traditional scholars of India have understood dharma over the past millenia,
What happens when the Dharmaśāstra hits the ground? How is it applied in different ages and scenarios?
How society is affected by Dharmaśāstra and how societies are formed around Dharmaśāstra.

You will receive:

Five live Zoom sessions including time for Q&A
Recordings of sessions
Completion Certificate (if completing optional essay) or Participation Certificate
Access to student forum
Specially selected readings

If you’d like to learn more about this special not-to-be-repeated Masterclass, click here or drop me a line.

Your Tutor

Patrick Olivelle is Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

His current research focuses on the ancient Indian legal tradition of Dharmaśāstra. He has edited and translated the four early Dharmasūtras and prepared a critical edition of the Law Code of Manu (Mānava Dharmaśāstra).

Among his many other works is an award-winning translation of the early Upaniṣads. Prof. Olivelle has won several prestigious fellowships, including Guggenheim, NEH, and ACLS. He was elected Vice President of the American Oriental Society in 2004 and President in 2005.

NEW COURSE: ASCETICISM, SĀDHUS, AND YOGA

NEW COURSE: ASCETICISM, SĀDHUS, AND YOGA

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Asceticism, Sadhus, and Yoga:
Hindu Asceticism and its embodied practices

It’s always exciting to launch a new course and our newest is really something to get excited about!

Dr Daniela Bevilacqua has brought her considerable expertise to the creation of our latest offering: Asceticism, Sādhus, and Yoga: Hindu Asceticism and its Embodied Practices

Dr Bevilacqua brings us on a journey from the traditional to the modern practices of asceticism that have been a key part of of yoga practices for centuries.

What does asceticism have to do with contemporary practices
such as tapas, Haṭha-yoga, and yoga sādhanā?

How have these developed over the ages?

What are the most important ascetic groups and what do they practice?

Asceticism is a topic that is widely misunderstood and yet it remains a vital practice. This course makes it accessible. 

Click here to learn more

CED Day School: How do We Know What We Know?

CED Day School: How do We Know What We Know?

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Day School in Oxford on 4 June

How do We Know What We Know?

Transmitting Knowledge in Hinduism

We may know a lot. But how do we verify these things? Can we trust what our eyes see? Can we reason our way to the truth? Or do we have to learn from authority? While different Hindu traditions may understand the world differently, they often share an understanding of how they got to that knowledge. This day school examines the science of knowledge and knowledge acquisition as developed in India.

Sign up here!

When: 4 June 2023
Time: 10.00am – 5.30pm
Where: Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
How much: Enrolment Fee £245

The Idea of Revelation
Tutor: Prof. Gavin Flood

The Six Pramāṇas:
Tutor: Dr Jessica Frazier

The Guru and the Transmission of Knowledge in Devotional Vedānta
Tutor: Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

Applying Knowledge in a Śāstric Universe
Tutor: Dr Kenneth Valpey

See our newest Continuing Education online courses here

See our newest Continuing Education online courses here

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Our Newest Continuing Education Online Courses!

As some of you know by now, we spend a lot of time working to bring you amazing new courses. Here’s what we’ve released just this summer…

Vaishnavism

Vaishnavism is one of the major denominations of Hinduism and has had an enormous impact on the development of Hinduism in general.

We begin with a history of Vaishnavism from its earliest roots in the Vedas to its developments in South and North India, before moving on to consider Vaishnava practice and some of the forms that Vaishnavism takes today.

Throughout the course we allow the traditions to speak for themselves through Vaishnava texts.

Learn more

Colonial Hinduism

Hinduism has a remarkable ability to adapt and renew in the face of changing times. One of the most challenging of times in Hinduism’s long history was the period of British colonial rule.

In this new course, Colonial Hinduism, we see how much India and Hinduism changed over this period; the role of the colonial state in these changes; and Hindu responses.

This course is brought to us by Prof. Amiya Sen, a distinguished historian and OCHS Fellow.

Learn more

Devi Mahatmya

What if God was a Goddess? What if the universe was pervaded by a supreme feminine force which was part and parcel of creation and all beings within it? Devī Māhātmya presents such a divine vision, exalting the Great Goddess as the supreme mother of existence.

Composed some fifteen centuries ago, it signals the Brahmanical authorisation and crystallisation of indigenous Great Goddess traditions. This course features a new English translation of the Devī Māhātmya by Dr Raj Balkaran.

Learn more

And of course there are all our old favourites. Click here to learn more about them.

Vaiṣṇavism Online Weekend School

Vaiṣṇavism Online Weekend School

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Vaiṣṇavism Online Weekend School

                                                                                             11–12th  June

Our Continuing Education Department has put together an excellent programme on Vaiṣṇavism for the upcoming Weekend School.

The sessions will include:

Untangling the Traditions: The Vaishnava Family Tree
with Professor Gavin Flood

The Vaishnava Life: Rite, Ritual, Practice
with Professor Måns Broo

The Poetry of the Alvars
with Professor Archana Venkatesan

Vaishnava Bhakti Traditions in Gujarat
with Dr Arun Brahmbhatt

The Omnipresent Lord: Vaishnava Conceptions of the Divine
with Dr Rembert Lutjeharms

The Vaishnava Revolution in Modern India
with Professor Amiya P. Sen

How Vaishnavas and Muslims Worked Together in Early Modern Bengal
with Professor Tony K. Stewart

Read more and sign up for the course here!

New CED Term begins 16 Jan 2022

New CED Term begins 16 Jan 2022

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Learn something new this year

Join us for the upcoming term at our Continuing Education Department starting on 16 January 2022.
This term we are pleased to present two new courses: Hinduism and popular religious art tutored by Dr Layne Little and Hinduism, Yoga, and Ecology tutored by Prof. Christopher Key Chapple, a course developed in collaboration with our environmental outreach project Hindu Climate Action.  

You can find all our courses here, or browse a small selection below. 

Exploring the Yoga Sutras

Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras is one of the best known, yet least understood texts on Yoga. Yoga Sūtras are accepted as the authoritative text on Yoga doctrine and practice and in this course you can comprehensively – chapter by chapter, sūtra by sūtra – understand what Patañjali intended and what it means to modern spiritual practice.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Daniel Simpson
Course creator: Dr Nick Sutton 
Course duration: Eight weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Bhagavad Gita

Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Indian text that is vital to Hindu tradition, literature, and philosophy. This Bhagavad Gita course is an engaging and informative learning experience, brought to you remotely by OCHS online. Within this course, you will study the main themes of Krishna’s teachings and the principles, ideas, and theories within the 18 chapters, or 700 verses, of Bhagavad Gita.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Dr Layne Little
Course creator: Dr Nick Sutton 
Course duration: Seven weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Hinduism, Yoga, and Ecology

What do Hinduism and Yoga Philosophy have to say about ecology and the environment? Hinduism is full of big ideas. How do these big ideas relate to modern life?

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Prof. Christopher Key Chapple
Course creator: Prof. Christopher Key Chapple
Course duration: Eight weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Hinduism and popular Religious Art

Join us on this visually striking course exploring Hinduism and popular religious art over the past two centuries and more. With more than 25 hours of richly illustrated video we learn the story of India’s use of modern technologies to reimagine the sacred in vibrant and unexpected new ways.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Dr Layne Little
Course creator: Dr Layne Little
Course duration: Eight weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

Tantra: a New Understanding

In this Tantra course, we reflect on what the Tantric traditions are, their origin, formation, core texts and practices, and what they mean for us today. As with all of our online courses, you’ll be supported on this Tantra course by an expert in the field. For more information on the course outline, continue reading below for a full breakdown.

Start date: 16 January 2022
Tutor: Prof. Gavin Flood
Course Creator: Prof. Gavin Flood
Course duration: Seven weeks

Read more and sign up: here!

See you on January 16!

Online Tantra Course

Online Tantra Course

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OCHS Academic Director creates online Tantra Course

OCHS Academic Director, Prof. Gavin Flood, author of The Tantric Body, a standard text on Tantra, has created a course on Tantra for the OCHS Continuing EducationDepartment.

The most misrepresented of all Hindu traditions, Tantra has come to be represented as all sex and secret ritual. And while these are an important facet of the traditions there is much more to it.

Tantric ideas have shaped core Hindu practices such as temple building, worship, mantra, yoga, ayurveda, meditation, and guru-disciple relationships. It is said by some to be the very fabric of the Hindu world-view.
Prof. Flood has written a new text for this course, recorded the lecture videos, and will be tutoring online for the first two terms at least.

The course begins on Sunday 25 April and enrolments are open at https://ochsonline.org/product/tantra/

Interview between Dr Raj Balkaran and Daniel Simpson

Interview between Dr Raj Balkaran and Daniel Simpson

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Interview Between Dr Raj Balkaran and Daniel Simpson

DECEMBER 3 2020

As part of his wide-ranging and informative podcast series, New Books in Hindu Studies, Dr Raj Balkaran interview Daniel Simpson on his new book, The Truth of Yoga. Raj and Daniel are two of our best (and best-liked) tutors so this is of special interest to the OCHS and its students. You can access it here.

In a former life, Daniel was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times and in his book here he uses his prodigious skills at making big stories digestible to some of Hinduism’s biggest stories.

They also talk about the wonders of online learning in the age of covid; different learning and teaching styles; exploring and reconciling the tensions between practice and theory; and (a key OCHS goal) taking the deep thought of the world’s best scholars and making them accessible.

They also talk about our upcoming New Directions in Yoga Studies weekend school at which Daniel will be speaking and which Raj has curated and will be hosting.