Drawing on Clifford Geertz’s understanding of religion as a ‘worldview’, the seminar series explore key themes in Hinduism and looks at the way in which crucial conceptual ‘translations’ are needed to understand Hindu culture properly from without, and asks whether it is possible to derive critical and hermeneutic ‘theory’ in religious studies from Indic material. One of the goals will be to challenge the hegemony of Western-derived ‘theories’ of religion, culture, and human nature.
Lecture tag: Hinduism
Readings in the Netra Tantra (Session Two) (HT 14)
The Netra Tantra is an important early medieval Śaiva text. We will read and discuss sections of the text based on the two manuscripts in the NGMPP Library and compare these with the published KSTS edition. Apart from reading the text we will discuss its meaning.
Hinduism 2: Hindu Traditions (Paper 21): Week Two (HT 14)
Beginning with the early medieval period, this paper traces the development of Hinduism in devotional (bhakti) and tantric traditions. The paper examines the development of Śaiva, Śākta, and Vaiṣṇava traditions along with ideas about liberation, ritual, asceticism, yoga and devotion. There will be some exploration of Hinduism and Modernity and there may also be reference to major schools of Hindu philosophy such as Vedānta.
Hinduism 2: Hindu Traditions (Paper 21): Week One (HT 14)
Beginning with the early medieval period, this paper traces the development of Hinduism in devotional (bhakti) and tantric traditions. The paper examines the development of Śaiva, Śākta, and Vaiṣṇava traditions along with ideas about liberation, ritual, asceticism, yoga and devotion. There will be some exploration of Hinduism and Modernity and there may also be reference to major schools of Hindu philosophy such as Vedānta.
Vedism and Brahmanism in Buddhist Literature: An Overview (MT 2014)
There is seen the tendency of Vedism and Brahmanism through out the Buddhist literature, right from the early Pāli canon through the Mahāyāna to the late Buddhist Tantric texts. In the Pāli canon, the terms such as veda, vijjā, tevijja, yañña and so on. These terms have basically Vedic connotations; however they have been used in a different, typically Buddhist sense. In the Mahāyāna scriptures, there are a number of Vedic concepts used to praise the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas. In the Vajrayāna rituals, we find a growing tendency of Vedism and Brahmanism. While borrowing the Vedic and Brahmanical vocabulary, concepts and ritual practices, the Buddhist did not necessarily adhere directly to particular traditions or texts. The proportion of the usage of such vocabulary and ritualistic practices has increased in the Mahāyāna and, more prominently, in late Buddhist Tantric tradition that involved the muttering of various mantras, offerings into fire and other practices, resembling the Vedic and Brahmanical sacrificial ritual.
Key thinkers in Hindu Studies – Session four (MT 16)
This seminar series will provide an outline of a discipline with its own dramatic history and discuss some of the different forms that the study of Hinduism has taken with a focus on some of its key thinkers. At the same time, the history of Hindu Studies is inextricably intertwined with the history of the Study of Religion and many key thinkers are shared by these disciplines as demonstrated by the classic example of Max Müller, the indologist who became a founder of Comparative Religion or ‘Religionswissenschaft’. On the other hand, some key thinkers belong to neither of these disciplines, but have had a profound influence on both (such as the sociologist Max Weber). In the seminars we will discuss the work, theories and methodology of some of these key thinkers that remain influential on contemporary approaches to the study of religion in South Asia.