The course continues an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper in Elementary Sanskrit. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the basics of the Sanskrit grammar, syntax and vocabulary. By the end of the course students will have competency in translating simple Sanskrit and reading sections of the story of Nala. The course book is Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language.
Archives: Lectures
Readings in Phenomenology: Session Seven (TT15)
Levinas argues against the Heideggerian perspective on Being in favour of the other who/that makes injunctive demand upon us. We will continue reading Levinas Totality and Infinity beginning with chapter 2.
Hindu Theology for a King: Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa’s Tattvadīpikā: Session Eight (TT15)
The Tattvadīpikā (An Illumination of Reality) is an unpublished Vedāntic work written by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa (ca 1700-1793), a prominent Bengali Vaiṣṇava author in the early modern period. The manuscript is held in the library of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur (Manuscript #5693 in Gopal Bahura’s Literary Heritage of Rulers of Amber and Jaipur). The work is not widely circulated among Bengali Vaiṣṇavas, and its existence was practically unknown till the catalogue of the library was published in 1976. This suggests that the work was probably written exclusively for Jaisingh II (1688-1743), a famous Rajput king of Jaipur Baladeva worked for, who was known for his keen interest in Hindu Theology.
The text is primarily concerned with a refutation of other schools of thought such as Buddhism, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṅkhya, and Advaita Vedānta, providing us with an excellent insight into the intellectual climate in early modern North India. This reading class aims to introduce students with an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit to the style of theological debate in Sanskrit writings as well as to the methodology of editing a text based on a manuscript.
Dr. Kiyokazu Okita is Assistant Professor at The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University, Department of Indology, Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University.
Readings in Phenomenology: Session Eight (TT15)
Levinas argues against the Heideggerian perspective on Being in favour of the other who/that makes injunctive demand upon us. We will continue reading Levinas Totality and Infinity beginning with chapter 2.
Readings in the Netra Tantra: Session Eight (TT15)
We will continue reading the text from the Nepalese manuscripts.
Sanskrit Prelims:Session one (MT15)
The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the basics of Sanskrit grammar, syntax and vocabulary. By the end of the course students will have competency in translating simple Sanskrit and reading sections of the Bhagavad-gītā and passages from other texts. The course book will be Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language.
Readings in the Netra Tantra: Session one (MT15)
The Netra Tantra is an important text of Śaiva tantrism popular in Kashmir some time between the eighth and eleventh centuries CE. These readings will use the KSTS edition along with two manuscripts from Nepal.
Readings in Phenomenology: Session one (MT15)
Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century that has had a deep impact on Theology and Religious Studies. The reading group seeks to engage with some of the fundamental concepts of phenomenology that underlie much work in Theology and the Phenomenology of Religion. This term we hope to read two texts. The recent new realism and speculative materialism has questioned the correlationalism (between consciousness and world) in Phenomenology. To get some perspective on this critique we will read Quentin Meillassoux’s After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency (London: Continuum 2009). After this short book we will read Zizek’s Less than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism (London and New York: Verso, 2012).
Sanskrit Prelims (MT15)
The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. The class is designed to introduce students of Theology and Religion to the basics of Sanskrit grammar, syntax and vocabulary. By the end of the course students will have competency in translating simple Sanskrit and reading sections of the Bhagavad-gītā and passages from other texts. The course book will be Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language.
Readings in Early Modern Bengali Texts: Session one (MT15)
We will read sections from key devotional and theological Vaiṣṇava texts in Bengali from the early modern period and discuss their meaning. Some proficiency in Bengali is a requirement.