Archives: Lectures

Readings in the Jayottaratantra: Session One

Shivdasani Seminar

Recently I have located a 14th century palm-leaf manuscript of Jayottaratantra in the National Archives, Kathmandu, and am preparing an edition of it. Previously, we had no access to this text though the title appears in the list of ?gamas found in the P?dma- and P?rame?varasa?hit?, and also in the Pañcar?trarak?? of Ved?ntade?ika. The Jayottaratantra, in fact, serves as the foundational layer of the Jay?khya-sa?hit?, one of the earliest available Vai??ava Tantras. The Jayottaratantra is quite concise and contains approximately 400 verses. Unlike the printed version of the Jay?khyasa?hit? that contains nearly 5000 verses, it is coherent and consistent. I will report on special features of this text along with those of other three early Vai??ava Tantras from Nepal, in one of my lectures. However, in these two seminars, I propose to read the ninth chapter that deals with Yoga from my edition of the text. We will interpret the text, occasionally discuss philological problems, and compare the text with the corresponding chapter of the Jay?khyasa?hit?.

Mahatma Gandhi at the OCHS 3: The “Sanatani” Mahatma (lecture)

Shivdasani Lecture

The third lecture is on the “Sanatani” Mahatma. Sanatani here may be taken as both the perennial Gandhi, but also the Hindu, in the sense of Sanatana Dharma, Gandhi. This lecture, thus, attempts to ask what aspects of Gandhi outlive him, but also in what ways he was the quintessential, perhaps the greatest, Hindu of his times. Such questions, understandably, assume greater urgency in a post-Hindutva India. If we closely examine his life, we notice not just how radically Gandhi modified and reformed the Hinduism that he had inherited, but also how deeply he renewed and burnished it. Some of the most challenging tensions in Gandhi’s thought, including his critique of modernity, may be better understood, if not resolved, if we see his key ideas in a sanatani perspective. It is such a non-exclusive reading of Gandhi that can help us move beyond both the reductionism of Hindutva and of a self-constitutively secular academic discourse itself. In all, these four presentations are not merely academic explorations of Gandhi’s life and thought, but also investigations into what it may mean to be (neo)-Gandhian in our times. Makarand Paranjape is a Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A critic, poet, fiction writer, and literary columnist with over thirty books and 100 published academic papers to his credit, he is also the author of more 250 reviews, notes, and popular articles. His latest book is Another Canon: Indian Texts and Traditions in English (Anthem Press, forthcoming).The third lecture is on the “Sanatani” Mahatma. Sanatani here may be taken as both the perennial Gandhi, but also the Hindu, in the sense of Sanatana Dharma, Gandhi. This lecture, thus, attempts to ask what aspects of Gandhi outlive him, but also in what ways he was the quintessential, perhaps the greatest, Hindu of his times. Such questions, understandably, assume greater urgency in a post-Hindutva India. If we closely examine his life, we notice not just how radically Gandhi modified and reformed the Hinduism that he had inherited, but also how deeply he renewed and burnished it. Some of the most challenging tensions in Gandhi’s thought, including his critique of modernity, may be better understood, if not resolved, if we see his key ideas in a sanatani perspective. It is such a non-exclusive reading of Gandhi that can help us move beyond both the reductionism of Hindutva and of a self-constitutively secular academic discourse itself. In all, these four presentations are not merely academic explorations of Gandhi’s life and thought, but also investigations into what it may mean to be (neo)-Gandhian in our times.

Hinduism I: Themes and Textual Sources Lecture 6: Philosophical Traditions I

This course offers a thematic and historical introduction to Hinduism for students of theology and religious studies. Focusing on the brahmanical tradition we will explore the textual sources, categories, practices and social institutions that formed that tradition. Primary texts in translation will provide the basis for reflection on issues such as dharma, renunciation, caste, and concepts of deity. We then move on to some of the major philosophical developments of the tradition, with particular emphasis on the Vedanta. The course will raise theological and cultural questions about the relation between reason and practice, person and world, and society and gender. We will conclude with a consideration of Hinduism and modernity.

Mahatma Gandhi at the OCHS 4: Gandhigiri vs. Gandhiism: The Afterlife of the Mahatma in Lage Raho Munna Bhai (seminar)

The last seminar is as much a celebration of Bollywood as of Gandhi. It is to the former that the credit for most effectively resurrecting the Mahatma should go, certainly much more so than to Gandhians or academics. For Bollywood literally revives the spirit of Gandhi by showing how irresistibly he continues to haunt India today. Not just in giving us Gandhigiri—a totally new way of doing Gandhi in the world—but in its perceptive representation of the threat that modernity poses to Gandhian thought is Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) remarkable (film to be shown Monday morning). What is more, it also draws out the distinction between Gandhi as hallucination and the real afterlife of the Mahatma. The film’s enormous popularity at the box office—it grossed close to a billion rupees—is not just an index of its commercial success, but also proof of the responsive cord it struck in Indian audiences. But it is not just the genius and inventiveness of Bollywood cinema that is demonstrated in the film as much as the persistence and potency of Gandhi’s own ideas, which have the capacity to adapt themselves to unusual circumstances and times. Both Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning epic, and Rajkumar Hirani’s Lage Raho Munna Bhai show that Gandhi remains as media-savvy after his death as he was during his life.

In all, these four presentations are not merely academic explorations of Gandhi’s life and thought, but also investigations into what it may mean to be (neo)-Gandhian in our times.

Makarand Paranjape is a Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A critic, poet, fiction writer, and literary columnist with over thirty books and 100 published academic papers to his credit, he is also the author of more 250 reviews, notes, and popular articles. His latest book is Another Canon: Indian Texts and Traditions in English (Anthem Press, forthcoming).