The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. 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 and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language.
Archives: Lectures
Hinduism II: Session seven (HT20)
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.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.
Sanskrit Prelims II: Session eight (HT20)
The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. 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 and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language.
Cannabis use by yogis in India
In this talk we will survey what is known about the use of cannabis in India from the earliest records until modern times. In my book, The Tawny One: Soma, Haoma and Ayahuasca (London/New York: Muswell Hill Press, 2017), one of the chapters was devoted to this topic. Although there are a few occasional references in the Vedas (the oldest religious texts of South Asia) to what may be cannabis, the plant does not appear in medical texts until around 1,000 years ago. The use of cannabis for recreational purposes was mainly introduced into India by radical Sufis (known variously as Qalandar, Heydari or Malang) in the 13th century. Some South Asian yogis use cannabis heavily as a form of tapas. The use of cannabis was made illegal in India in 1986, since when recreational use has declined. However, in some areas cannabis is still legal, and bhāṅg (a form of the plant prepared for oral consumption) is still widely available in north India. In this talk we will also look briefly at different kinds of cannabis preparations in South Asia.
Dr Matthew Clark (PhD) is a Research Associate in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at SOAS (University of London). He specialises in yoga, sādhus, and the religious cultures of India. He is involved in the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies and is one of the editors of the Journal of Yoga Studies. His research in the last few years has focussed on soma/haoma, the ancient Asian ritual drink. His theory, presented in his recent book (The Tawny One: Soma, Haoma and Ayahuasca. London/New York: Muswell Hills Press, 2017) and several articles, is that it was originally made from plants that acted as analogues of ayahuasca, a powerful psychedelic concoction.
Readings in Phenomenology: Session eight (MT20)
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 seminar series seeks to engage with some of the fundamental concepts of phenomenology, and has turned in the past to thinkers such as Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, Peter Sloterdijk, Quentin Meillassoux, and others.
This term we will be reading Paul Ricoeur’s Memory, History, Forgetting.
Readings in Vedānta – Bhedābheda Vedānta: Session eight (MT20)
These reading sessions are intended for students who have an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit and are interested in Vedānta texts. This term we will continue reading Bhāskara’s commentary on the Brahma-sūtras.
Rethinking the Sacred – Philosophies of the Divine Nature in Indian and Western Sources: Session four
These four seminars rethink the ways that the sacred is defined in the world today. Questioning current assumptions about science, reality and religion, it draws on both western and Indian scholastic philosophy to explore ideas of the divine as: 1) The creative ground of a sacred continuum between nature and ‘super-nature’; 2) The material and foundation of existence; 3) The impetus of all dynamic movement and development; 4) A basis for new emerging forms of existence and value.
Classical debates about creation, immutability, Being and transcendence in the Western philosophical tradition remain unresolved, and these seminars seek new solutions in Indian conversations about these ideas. We draw on sources in the Bhedābheda Vedāntic tradition of Indian thought to suggest different ways of formulating the divine nature. Typically, we see the divine paradoxically as something more than the world’s realm of mere transient and finite forms, yet the ground and creative source of them all. This way of thinking was continually challenged by Buddhist theories of mereology, change, and anti-essentialism, leading to an evolution of the original doctrines through novel and innovative new approaches. Yet we also see how this Hindu theory of a ‘sacred continuum’ challenges the way that Western ideas of God tend to oppose ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’, human vs divine will, and the supposed conflict between the religious and the secular.
Week 8, Thursday 12 March – Divine Purity and Perfection: Metaphors of Light, Spice and Drama
There is a tension between ideals of an unknowable divine perfection, and the forms of beauty, love and value that we see in the world. Here we look at the unique kind of value attributed to the divine nature – both as a pure ‘simple’ kind of being, and as the quality that manifests in aesthetic beauty. We see how notions that the divine is metaphysically simple or pure (advitīya, śuddha) relate to aesthetic notions of rūpa, bhoga, rasa, līlā, and ānanda.
The Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta: Introduction and Readings: Session seven
In these lectures Professor Sanderson will introduce the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts, contextualizing his undertaking within the religious developments of the early medieval period. He will then translate and explain Abhinavagupta’s own introduction to his work (1.22–106), in which he sets out the fundamentals of his system.
Prof. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studied the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. From 2015 to the present he has been the Academic Director of the Institute for Śaiva and Tantric Studies in Portland, Oregon, where he is preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Sanskrit Prelims II: Session eight (HT20)
The course provides an introduction to Sanskrit for the preliminary paper of the Theology and Religion Faculty in Elementary Sanskrit. A range of relevant Hindu and Buddhist texts will be chosen for translation and philological comment. 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 and the Buddhist Heart Sūtra. The course book will be Walter Maurer’s The Sanskrit Language.
Hinduism II: Session eight (2020)
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.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.