School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy, and Comparative Religions Courses to Be Offered Semesters I to IV: 2018-2019 Semester I: Core Courses: Introduction to the Study of Buddhism Foundational/Core/Credit 3 Instructor: Aleksandra Wenta This course introduces students to Buddhist traditions. Beginning with the life story of the Buddha, students learn about Buddhism in ancient India, the key texts, doctrines and practices. Following that, Buddhism’s journey out of India is charted. Buddhism’s arrival in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia East Asia and Central Asia is explored through a variety of sources; archaeological, epigraphic, textual, ethnographic. At the conclusion of the course, students will have gained a good grounding in key doctrines and practices, have an overview of the history of Buddhism as it developed over the centuries, and have begun to have some awareness of Buddhist textual traditions. · Reading List: Rupert Gethin, Foundations of Buddhism. Dalai Lama “The Opening of the Wisdom Eye,” Selected Suttas, including: ◦ The Discourse on the Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dhamma (Dhamma-cakka-pavattana-sutta) ◦ Discourse on the Not-Self Characteristic (Anatta-lakkhana-sutta) ◦ The Fire Sermon (Aditta-pariyaya-sutta) · Jonathan Walters: “The Buddha’s Bad Karma: A Problem in the History of Theravāda Buddhism”, Numen, Vol. 37, Fasc. 1 (Jun., 1990), pp. 70-95. · J. Strong, The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations, ch.4: “The Dharma: Some Mahayana Perspectives”, pp. 145-187 History and Philosophy of Yoga Foundational/Core/Credit 3 Instructor: Sukhbir Singh The School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy, and Comparative Religions at ​ Nalanda University offers a comprehensive foundational course on “History and Philosophy of Yoga” with a view to acquaint the students with the theoretical and practical essentials of the various yoga systems from the pre-Vedic times to the present day. The course accounts in detail the shifting postulates and parameters of the Yoga philosophy as it traverses the vast terrain of many millennia. A comparative and critical approach informs the instructional methodology positing a collation of the conflicting and comparable ideologies within the various Yoga disciplines. The classroom ​ ​ presentations, discussions, and take-home assignments supplement the teaching for a more intimate and inspiring understanding of the subject. Reading List: Hinduism: Its Meaning for the Liberation of the Spirit-Swami Nikhilananda Prehistoric India-Stuart Piggot Yoga Philosophy and Religion-S.N. Dasgupta The Yoga and the Hindu Tradition-Jean Varenne Yogasutra—Patanjali: Comment. Sw. Vivekananda The Philosophy of Classical Yoga-Georg Feuerstein Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali—Hariharnanda Aranya Yoga and Indian Philosophy—Karel Werner Great Systems of Yoga—Ernest Wood Yoga Philosophy in Relation to Other Systems of Indian Thought—S.N. Dasgupta The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy, and Practice—Georg Feuerstein Yoga: Immortality and Freedom—Mircea Eliade Yoga and the Western Psychology—Geraldine Coster The Tree of Yoga—BKS Iyenger Yoga: A Scientific Explanation—K Behanan Oriental Mythology—Joseph Campbell Introduction to Buddhist Archaeology Foundational/Core/Credit 3 Instructor: Garima Kaushik Starting with an overview of the Sources (textual, epigraphy, art and ​ architecture, ethno archaeology) for the study of Buddhism the course leads to an Introduction to Buddhist Archaeology and its early beginnings. It discusses how Buddhism has been looked at archaeologically. The development and the evolution of the subject over time. Problems and tensions between text and archaeology based frameworks of analysis. The historical Buddha; contestation over dates for the birth and Parinirvana of the Buddha. Some important Buddhist Sites in South Asia; An overview; Sites associated directly with the life of the Buddha; Early Buddhist Pilgrimage Sites. Buddhism and Commerce, trade networks, issues of patronage and pilgrimage. Evolution of sects and sectarianism: an archaeological assessment. Stupa & the relic cult; decline of Buddhism and Neo Buddhism. Reading List: A. Ghosh, An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology,2 Vols., BRILL, 1990. Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments, Sahitya Samsad, Calcutta, 1971 Lars Fogelin, An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism, OUP, 2015, p. 1-32. Curators of the Buddha: The study of Buddhism under Colonialism, Donald S. Lopez, University of Chicago Press, 1995 Schopen, G. (1991). Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism. History of Religions, 31(1), 1-23. R.E.M Wheeler, Arikamedu: An Indo-Roman Trading-Station on the East Coast of India. Vimala Begley, Arikamedu Reconsidered, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 87, No. 4 (Oct., 1983), pp. 461-481 Fogelin, L. Archaeology of early Buddhism (Vol. 4). Rowman Altamira, 2006 Hawkes, J. Julia Shaw. Buddhist landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and archaeologies of religious and social change, c. third century BC to fifth century AD.. Antiquity, 86(333), 2012. P. 941-942 Robin Conningham, The Archaeology of Buddhism, in World Religions, ed. Timothy Insoll, Routledge, 2002, p.61-95, C. Becker,AndhraStupas as sites of transformation inShifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculptures from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra, New York: OUP, 2015 Upinder Singh, ‘Exile and Return: The Reinvention of Buddhism and Buddhist Sites in Modern India’, South Asian Studies 26 no. 2 (2010): 193-217. Gary Tartakov, ‘New Paths to Sanchi’, In Vidya Dehejia, ed., Unseen Presence: The Buddha and Sanchi (Bombay: Marg, 1996): 110-130. Electives Courses: Opt for Any Two including one NON-SBS Course (Cafeteria Model) Pali-I/Tibetan-I/Sanskrit-I (Opt One) Foundational/Elective/Credit 3 Instructors: Sean Kerr (Pali), Aleksandra Wenta (Tibetan), (Sanskrit)To be notified Students are expected to acquire foundational knowledge of basic grammatical points, scripts, phonetics, basic vocabulary and different forms of transliteration of various scripts into Roman script. Practical exercises and simple readings will be conducted in class and individually by students. Introductory modules of socio-linguistic, historical and cultural context of the respective languages will be given by instructors as well. Students will become familiar with existing linguistic resources (e.g. dictionaries, grammars, online resources, etc.) Reading List: Stephen Hodge’s An Introduction to Classical Tibetan (Aris & Phillips, Warminster, 1990) Jäschke, H.A. Tibetan Grammar, London: Trübner & Co. Goldman, Robert P. and Sutherland Goldman, Sally J. 2011. Devavāṇīpraveśikā: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language. Center for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley: Berkeley. Apte, V.S. 2006. The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary Containing Appendices on Sanskrit Prosody, Important Literary and Geographical Names of Ancient India. Delhi:Motilal Banarsidass. de Silva, Lily. Pali Primer. VRI, 1994. Gair, J. & Karunatillake, W. S. A New Course in Reading Pali. Motilal Banarsidas, 1998. Introduction to the Religions and Philosophies of Ancient India Foundational/Elective/Credits 3 Instructor: To be Notified Survey of the religious and philosophical traditions of ancient India, including: the ​ Indus Valley Civilization; Hinduism; the Vedas; the early Upanisads; the classical schools of Hindu Philosophy such as Sankhya and Yoga etc.; the late Vedic milieu; Jainism, Early Buddhism, Hindu Tantrism; Mahayana developments; Tantric Buddhism; Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Vedanta, and the late Yoga developments. Reading List: Chakravarthi, Ram-Prasad. Knowledge and Liberation in Classical Indian Thought. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Chandradhar, Sharma. A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1987. Dadgupta, Surendranath. A History of Indian Philosophy, vols. 1–5. Cambridge: University Press, 1969. Hiriyanna, M. Outlines of Indian Philosophy. London: Allen & Unwin, 1967. Mohanty, J. N. Classical Indian Philosophy. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Radhakrishnan, S. Indian Philosophy. Vol. 1. London: Allen & Unwin, 1929. First published 1923. Chakrabarti Arindam, “Arguing from Synthesis to the Self: Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta Respond to Buddhist No-selfism”, Hindu and Buddhist Ideas in Dialogue: Self and No-Self, ed. I. Kunetsova, J. Ganeri and C.Ram-Prasad, Surrey: Ashgate 2012, pp.199-216. Dyczkowski Mark S.G., The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Śaivism, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989. Dyczkowski Mark S.G., The Stanzas on Vibration: The Spandakārikā with Four Commentaries, Varanasi: Dilip Kumar Publishers, 1994. Mishra Kamalakar, Kashmir Śaivism: The Central Philosophy of Tantrism, Delhi: Satguru Publications, 1999. Muller-Ortega Paul Eduardo, The Tradic Heart of Śiva, Albany: SUNY Press, 1989. Pandey K.C., Abhinavagupta: A Historical and Philosophical Study, Varanasi: Chaukhamba Amarabharati Prakashan, 2000. Pandit, B.N. Specific Principles of Kashmir Śaivism, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997. A Critical Introduction to the Originary Hindu Myths Foundational/Elective/Credits 3 Instructor: To be Notified The Originary or Creation myths in Hinduism are not only interesting stories but also mysto-mines of the essentials of those very belief systems which they belong to. An originary myth is like a prelude or an epigraph which keytunes the scholar for reception of the main system in its multiple inner and outer aspects. A vast variety of the originary myths