Sunday 12 October – Saturday 6 December 2025
Library opening hours are Monday to Friday, 9.30am-5.30pm.
Weeks 1-8, Friday 4.00-5.00, Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
Dr Rembert Lutjeharms
These lectures offer a thematic and historical introduction to the sources and development of Hindu traditions from their early formation to the medieval period. We will explore the formation of Hindu traditions through textual sources, such as the Vedas, Upaniṣads and Bhagavad Gītā, along with the practices and social institutions that formed classical Hindu traditions. The lectures will include an introduction to Hindu philosophy.
Weeks 1-8, Thursday 12.00-1.00, OCHS Library
Dr Rembert Lutjeharms
Vedānta—theology grounded in the systematic exegesis of the Upaniṣads—has for centuries been the primary discourse for Hindu thought. These reading sessions are intended for students who have at least an introductory knowledge of Sanskrit and are interested in Vedānta texts.
Weeks 1-8, Wednesday 10.00-11.00, Friday 10.00-12.00, OCHS Library
Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen
The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. Students of Pali will join the Sanskrit course in Michaelmas Term and for the first four weeks of Hilary Term. From week 5 of Hilary Term, Sanskrit and Pali will be taught as two separate courses, i.e. Sanskrit Prelims and Pali for Sanskritists.
Sanskrit Prelims: A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment in the Sanskrit course. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the essentials of Sanskrit grammar, syntax, and vocabulary and its importance for the exegesis of Sanskrit texts. Students will learn to appreciate the interpretative nature of translation as a central discipline for the study of religions. By the end of the course students will have gained a basic competency in translating classical Sanskrit and reading relevant passages from texts such as the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, the Bhagavadgītā, the Haṭhayogapradīpikā and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language. Sanskrit Prelims continues throughout Michaelmas and Hilary Terms and for the first four weeks of Trinity.
Pali Prelims: The Pali course is designed to provide an easy philological introduction to Pali Buddhist texts via Sanskrit and introduce students of Theology and Religion to the essentials ofPali grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. A range of relevant Pali Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. The course book will be Dines Andersen, A Pāli Reader and Pali Glossary, 2 vols. (1901) supplemented by Rune E. A. Johansson, Pali Buddhist Texts: An Introductory Reader and Grammar (1981).
Pali students will attend the same ‘Sanskrit and Pali’ classes as Sanskrit students in Michaelmas Term and weeks 1-4 of Hilary Term. From week 5 of Hilary Term, Pali and Sanskrit students will study in separate classes.
Weeks 5 and 8, Wednesday 2.30-4.00, OCHS Library
Convened by Aamir Kaderbhai
Week 8, Wednesday 3 December 2.30-4.00, OCHS Library
Weeks 1-3 and 5-8, Monday 12.00-1.00, OCHS Library
Professor Gavin Flood FBA
Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century, and it has also had a deep impact on other theoretical fields more widely conceived. This term we will read Martin Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy (of the Event), translated by Richard Rojcewicz and Daniela Vallega-Neu (Bloomingon: Indiana University Press, 2012).
Weeks 2, 6, and 8, Monday 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Professor Gavin Flood FBA
These readings will focus on texts illustrative of theme of ascent in the history of Indian religious literature. We will begin with the Vedas and Brāhmaṇas and move through with selected readings to the Tantras. The form will be that we read the Sanskrit text with English translation and it is intended as a discussion group rather than a formal lecture.
Week 2, Monday 20 October 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Week 6, Monday 17 November 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Week 8, Monday 1 December 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8, Thursday 5.00-6.00, OCHS Library
Professor Alexis Sanderson
The Kashmirian Śaiva theologian Abhinavagupta offers in his magisterial Tantrāloka, composed c. 1000 CE, an all-embracing analysis of the Tantric Śaiva paths to liberation from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva system known as the Trika. In these four lectures I will complete my exposition of the opening verses of this text.
Alexis Sanderson studied first Classics and then Sanskrit at Oxford as an undergraduate (1967–71). As a postgraduate student he spent six years in Kashmir studying the Śaiva literature of that region under the guidance of Swami Lakshman Joo, the last learned exponent and practitioner of the Kashmirian Śākta Śaiva tradition. He returned to Oxford in 1977 to teach Sanskrit and Indology. He held that post until 1992, when he became a Fellow of All Souls College through election to Oxford’s Spalding Professorship of Eastern Religions and Ethics. He retired from that position in 2015. He moved to Japan in August of 2022 and there continues his work on the history of the religions of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. He is currently writing a history of the pre-Islamic religious traditions of Kashmir and producing a critical edition and English translation of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl.c. 975–1025) accompanied by an extensive commentary.
Week 5, Tuesday 11 November 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Dr Bihani Sarkar
The first part of this two part lecture argues that Pārvatī’s vrata in the Kumārasambhava— penance Kālidāsa describes in lavish and sympathetic detail in Chapter 5 of this epic poem– is a form of protest against the failings of masculine, paternalist orders formerly controlling her. These are the kingdom and hierarchies of conspiring male gods and ascetics, which, under threat from the demon Tāraka, had previously plotted to preserve its status, by using her as a pawn to tempt Śiva. Drawing a parallel in Ambā in the Mahābhārata, a female ascetic like Pārvatī, I will show that, in its very nature and the way in which it was aroused, Pārvatī’s penance (tapasyā) is antinomian, a protest against the devas. Though reductivist interpretations may claim that her tapasyā is conventional in its intention of winning Śiva, a male god, the lecture argues that it is in fact both an act of heroism and an act of love, arising from an awakening of individual will.
Week 5, Thursday 13 November 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Dr Bihani Sarkar
The second part of this lecture, focuses on chapter 8 of the Kumārasambhava, the (in)famous love-making between Śiva and Pārvatī, to argue that Pārvatī’s erotic awakening in this chapter forms part of the larger narrative in the poem of her growing self-awareness. Kālidāsa, the poet of the Kumārasambhava, intends this chapter as a complement to the one portraying her tapasyā, showcasing twin and apparently divided aspects of Pārvatī as the heroic dharmavijayinī, ‘victor of Dharma’, of the poem. In so doing, he portrays a ‘hero’ who accomplishes both ascetic and erotic self-awareness, an integration made possible only in a goddess who quests for love. The lecture draws parallels from the Buddhacarita, a precedent to the Kumārasambhava, whose hero, the Buddha, Pārvatī both resonates with and also moves away from in significant ways, to demonstrate a different, world-embracing idea of Dharma.
Bihani Sarkar is a historian of early Indian politics, religions and literature (poetry and drama) between the 2nd and the 15th centuries CE. She works mainly with classical Sanskrit and some Middle Indic (Prakrit) sources. She also draws from Bengali, her mother tongue. She has taught and has research interests across Indian philosophy and religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and South Asian Islam. Her current research and teaching interests include the Goddess in Indian religion; Sanskrit poetry and drama; classical Indian aesthetics; North Indian classical music; comparative literary theory; gender, transgression and power in early Indian literature and religions; sacred narrative and history; madness, knowledge and kingship.
Week 4, Wednesday 5 November 2.30-3.30, OCHS Library
Dr Theo Wildcroft and Dr Barbora Sojkova
Yoga Studies in Five Minutes provides an accessible guide to the diverse and growing field of research into yoga as a social, historical and cultural phenomenon. Both leading scholars and innovative researchers offer 60 brief responses to questions that offer insights into the study of yoga, such as: Who was the first teacher of yoga? Is yoga Indian? What is parampara? Are there holy texts in yoga? What are the goals of yoga? Why do yogis hold their breath? The collection covers ancient history, modern developments, and contemporary issues, considers the diverse practices and philosophies of yoga in a range of contexts, and uses a range of approaches, from philology to anthropology to art history. The collection is useful for established scholars looking to broaden their understanding of this rapidly developing field, as well as for those new to the subject. The book is an ideal starting point for both independent study and the classroom.
At this book launch event, the two editors, together with a few of the contributors, will introduce the book, talk about the process of producing it, and read a few of the entries. This will be a relaxed event to celebrate the book’s publication, free to attend, and with a few nibbles to tempt you. Anyone is very welcome to join us.
Theo Wildcroft, PhD is a yoga teacher-trainer, writer and scholar who is interested in the democratization of yoga post-lineage, somatic literacy, meaning-making and the counter-culture. She is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, UK, Visiting Lecturer in Dharmic Worldviews at the University of Chester, Fellow of the HEA, former Coordinator of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies, editor of the BASR Bulletin, an honorary member of the British Wheel of Yoga, member of the IAYT, a continuing professional development trainer and consultant for Yoga Alliance (E-RYT® 500, YACEP®), and Council Member for the American Yoga Council. She is the author of Post-lineage yoga: from guru to #metoo, co-writer of Leading Safe and Simple Yoga Nidras (coming soon), editor of Religion and the Sense of Self (also coming soon), and co-editor of The Yoga Teachers’ Survival Guide and Yoga Studies in Five Minutes.
Barbora Sojkova holds a DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Sanskrit) from Balliol College, University of Oxford, where her research focused on human-animal relationships in Vedic Sanskrit literature. She is a qualified librarian (PgDip in Library and Information Studies, UCL, 2024) and has previously worked at All Souls College and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the MANTRAMS Project at the University of Oxford, working on the history of mantra in Vedic. She is also a certified yoga teacher and trainer focusing on history and philosophy of yoga.
Week 7, Thursday 27 November 2.00-3.00, OCHS Library
Dr Alex Gath
Sabarimala is Kerala’s most high-profile Hindu pilgrimage. During the season, from mid-November to mid-January, millions of pilgrims undertake to travel to the mountain shrine. They proceed with a mixture of walking and bus and train transport. They dress in pilgrims’ garb and carry the traditional bag of offerings, often perched on the head. Widely seen as distinctively South Indian, the pilgrimage honours the hero-deity Sri Ayyappan. It has long been associated with an egalitarian ethos and popular with members of castes formerly subject to discrimination as well as with non-Hindus. It has been seen as a context within which both philosophical Hindu teachings and spontaneous popular piety can reach into the lives of individuals from many sectors of society. But there are intermittent problems. Some of these are common to many pilgrimages – infectious disease, accidents, environmental damage. Some are controversies and disagreements specifically concerning this tradition. Should female pilgrims of potential child-bearing age (set as 10 to 50 years of age) be permitted to participate despite a traditional exclusion? Is the former inter-religious aspect still apparent and important? What about relations with surrounding communities, including marginalised, formerly classified as ‘tribal’, groups? Sabarimala is becoming something of a global brand outside India, especially within the South Indian diaspora. And it has been an all-India talking point, as its concerns have been taken up by the Supreme Court and Central Government. In grappling with the significance of the Sabarimala pilgrimage today, it is well worth considering themes covering each of phenomenology/philosophy, politics and diaspora issues; and more besides. I hope to do this, drawing upon some thirty years of working with these themes, both through fieldwork and engaging with a variety of overlapping literatures.
Alex Gath has carried out anthropological research on contemporary Hindu culture of Kerala for some thirty years. He trained as an anthropologist at Edinburgh University after beginning his career working on topics in clinical, and philosophical, aspects of psychology (at Oxford, Sussex, Sydney Universities). In recent years he has concentrated on investigating South Indian diaspora communities, especially within UK but also USA and Europe, whilst maintaining his commitments within applied psychology. He emphasizes phenomenological approaches as a method for investigating interdisciplinary themes but also takes a strong interest in politics, history and related fields. He has published in anthropological and psychotherapy journals and, most recently, been a member of St Antony’s College, Oxford.