Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

Legends of the Goddess: Ānṭāḷ Stories in the Śrīvaiṣṇava Traditions

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Archana Venkatesan

This paper examines Ānṭāḷ’s story as it circulates in both textual and oral sources since the 12 century, with a particular emphasis on the Manipravala Guruparamparaprābhavam 6000 and 3000 and the Sanskrit Divyasūricaritam. I explore issues of genre, style and language choice as I chart the changes in Ānṭāḷ’s story, and the history that such alterations both reveal and conceal.

Dr. Archana Venkatesan is an Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature and in Religious Studies at the University of California, Davis. She completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. She has worked mainly on Andal, the female Alvar poet-saint, and published an award-winning translation of her poetry with OUP in 2010 (The Secret Garland: Antal's Tiruppavai and Nacciyar Tirumoli). She is currently working, with Prof. Francis X. Clooney (Harvard), on a translation of the Tiruvaymoli, one of the most important collections of Tamil devotional poetry.

From Under the Tamarind Tree: Hereditary Performance and Sectarian Identity in South India

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:23:59 +0000

Shivdasani Seminar

Dr. Archana Venkatesan

The temple of Alvar Tirunagari in the deep south of India is a unique archive of hereditary performance traditions in India. Whereas the seismic shift in patronage that occurred in the post-Independence period ensured the rapid erosion of temple-centered performance cultures, the insularity of Alvar Tirunagari ensured the preservation of multiple hereditary performance traditions—liturgical recitation, gestural interpretation, and ritual singing are just three examples—into the present century. But the performers of Alvar Tirunagari have not been untouched because of the shift in patronage, from local, elite landowners to State supported funding. Many performers have left temple service for more lucrative employment, while others supplement their meager temple income with white-collar jobs in major cities. In this paper I take up the example of Araiyar Cēvai, just one of Alvar Tirunagari’s several performance traditions, to explore the ways in which members from both within and from outside the hereditary families have sought to reshape it for a contemporary, urban audience.

Hindu Scriptural Reasoning 3

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:06:31 +0000

Scriptural Reasoning is a practice of reading scriptures and thinking about them across traditions. It was founded by Peter Ochs as a practice of Jews, Christians, and Muslims reading their scriptures together in small groups and comes out of the post-liberal Theology of the Yale School along with traditional Jewish practices of reading scripture (called Textual Reasoning). With a view to broadening the scope of Scriptural Reasoning it is proposed to transplant the practice into a Hindu context. The enterprise is hermeneutical in orientation although it assumes that much of the text-historical or philological work has been done. The practice will be simply to take a theme and passages from Hindu scriptures and discuss them. The aim of Scriptural Reasoning is to understand difference rather than to arrive at consensus (although that too can arise) but the practice is open ended. It is practice driven rather than theory driven although general features of Scriptural Reasoning have developed over the last twenty years or so. Probably the best way to describe it is to let Peter Ochs speak:

Scriptural Reasoning (SR) is an open-ended practice of reading- and reasoning-in-dialogue among scholars of the three Abrahamic traditions. There are no set doctrines or rules of SR, since the rules are embedded in the texts of scripture and their relation to those who study and reason together. Individual practitioners of SR do find it useful, however, to reflect occasionally on their group practice and identify its leading tendencies. Such reflections differ from individual to individual and from time to time, but there are overlaps, and both the overlaps and the differences stimulate http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/jsrforum/

Hindu Scriptural Reasoning will be by way of experiment to see whether a practice developed out of a Jewish context can work in a Hindu context.

Hindu Scriptural Reasoning

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Gavin Flood

Hindu Scriptural Reasoning will be by way of experiment to see whether a practice developed out of a Jewish context can work in a Hindu context.

The Sacred and the Secular: Hindu Ideology and Imagery in Extremist Politics

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:19:00 +0000

Shivdasani Seminar

Dr Swarupa Gupta

My presentation would explore how different visions, versions and heritages of Hinduism were reflected in Extremist politics. It would trace how such reflections crafted a nationalist idea of India. I will see how concepts such as Tilak’s ‘feeling of Hindutva’, Lajpat Rai’s ‘Hindu nationality’, B.C. Pal’s ‘composite patriotism’, and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay’s ‘Sankara’s Advaitic system’ differed from contemporary ideas about ‘Hindu Nationalism’. I argue that the Extremist brand of nationalism cannot be equated to communalism (Cf. J. Zavos: 2000 and 2011; and C. Jaffrelot: 1998). Using a comparative model, I trace regional and trans-regional iconisations of Hinduism in Extremist politics. Why and how were yearnings and devotion to a divine Motherland (India), referred to as ‘Gyan Bhumi’, ‘Punya Bhumi’, and ‘Ved Bhumi’ expressed? This is yoked to the symbolism of Krishnacharitra, and the performance of religious ceremonies for political purposes, such as the Ganapati festival in Maharashtra, which was also celebrated in Bengal. This is connected to the point about dissemination of Extremist religious-political ideas. I see how Kathas, and periodicals on religious discussions disseminated such ideas to a wider audience, and how the latter reacted to these.

Swarupa Gupta, Ph.D. in History, SOAS (University of London, 2004) is Assistant Professor Member at the Department of History, Presidency University, Calcutta. Her publications include: Notions of Nationhood in Bengal: Perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009); an edited volume entitled Nationhood and Identity Movements in Asia: Colonial and Postcolonial Times (Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2012); and a book manuscript: Ethnicity, Otherness and Cultural Constellations in Eastern India and Beyond. She has also contributed to various peer-reviewed international and national journals such as Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press), Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in History, Journal of the Asiatic Society, Encounters; and also to several edited books. She is the recipient of Felix Scholarship, University of London Central Research Fund award, SOAS fieldwork grant, and an invited visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany.

In the World but Not of the World: Social Ethics in Early Modern North India

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:22:00 +0000

Dr Kiyokazu Okita

Can a religious practitioner be exempt from performing social duties? Ever since Buddhists and Jains rejected Brahmanical social values, the issue of social ethics for religious practitioners has been a contested topic in South Asia. In this presentation, I examine how Baladeva Vidyabhusana, a Vaishnava theologian in the 18th century, dealt with this topic at the court of Jai Singh II, a famous Rajput king of Jaipur.

Kiyokazu Okita obtained his D.Phil. from Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford in 2011. After serving as a lecturer at Department of Religion, University of Florida, he is currently a JSPS post-doctoral research fellow at Department of Indological Studies, Kyoto University, as well as a visiting researcher at Abteilung für Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, Universität Hamburg.

Facets of Hinduism in the Cultural-Nationalist Programme of the Hindu Mela

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:05:00 +0000

Shivdasani Lecture

Dr Swarupa Gupta

The Hindu Mela (1867) was the first organised expression of cultural nationhood. This lecture will examine the triadic intersection between (Hindu) religion, culture, and nationalism as reflected in the Hindu Mela. It studies how this intersection formed a reference point for comparing the selective emphasis on Hindu heritage in the earlier (late nineteenth century and early twentieth century) phase, and later, in emphatically communal and political discourses. I will focus on the shifting connotation of ‘Hindu’, and argue that despite the nomenclature: ‘Hindu Mela’, there was a flexibility. This was evident in the contextual inclusion of non-Hindu groups in the Mela. Lines of religious divisions were blurred. The Mela was open to Indians of all classes, srenis [occupational-cum-social groups], and religious-communal groups. The ideology of the Mela was yoked to ideas about swadesh or Bharat Bhumi, which was not necessarily the land of the Hindus alone. This inclusion occurred despite the use of Hindu religious imagery. Using a comparative model, I track how and why this was different from / similar to the use of Hindu ideology and imagery by the Moderate Congress leaders and by the Extremists. In this regard, I explore how the Mela depicted / picturised Hindu Gods, e.g., a pushkar bijmala was given to Shiva; how Krishna was transmuted to the idol of Kali (done by Kasisvar Mitra, Rajendranath Deb and others). Further, I also address the issue of dissemination: for instance, at the national theatre, religious plays were staged. I also aim to investigate how the use of religious icons and images was accepted / not accepted by non-Hindus.

Swarupa Gupta, Ph.D. in History, SOAS (University of London, 2004) is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Presidency University, Calcutta. Her publications include: Notions of Nationhood in Bengal: Perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009); an edited volume entitled Nationhood and Identity Movements in Asia: Colonial and Postcolonial Times (Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2012); and a book manuscript: Ethnicity, Otherness and Cultural Constellations in Eastern India and Beyond. She has also contributed to various peer-reviewed international and national journals such as Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press), Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in History, Journal of the Asiatic Society, Encounters; and also to several edited books. She is the recipient of Felix Scholarship, University of London Central Research Fund award, SOAS fieldwork grant, and an invited visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany.

Consuming Scripture

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Shivdasani Lecture by Professor Parimal Patil

What counts as "scripture"? Wherein lies its authority? What has been said about dharma on the basis of it? How has what has been said been justified through exegesis (and other commentarial and "quasi-commentarial" practices)?

On How To Argue with a Buddhist

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Shivdasani Seminar by Professor Parimal Patil

In this seminar, we will explore what was at stake, both philosophically and otherwise, for Brahmanical philosophers in debates with Buddhist opponents. We will focus, in particular, on Nyāya arguments for the existence of Īśvara and Buddhist counterarguments.

Buddhists and Brahmins at Vikramaśīla

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:55:39 +0000

Shivdasani Lecture by Professor Parimal Patil

It is so well-known that Buddhist philosophers in India argued with their non-Buddhist opponents that it is hardly worth mentioning. Yet, despite the centuries-long history of such polemics, Buddhist philosophers in India rarely explained what they hoped to gain in critically engaging their opponents through such arguments. In this lecture, I discuss why Buddhist epistemologists at Vikramaśīla thought it was important to argue with their Brahmanical opponents.

Transforming Traditions 3: Innovation in the Theology of Madhusudana Sarasvati

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Sanjukta Gupta

Transforming Traditions 2: Krishna's Broken Contract: a Bhakti Reading of the Afghan Invasions in the 18th century

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A lecture by Richard Williams

Transforming Traditions 1: The Dramatic God: New Approaches to the Metaphysics of Divinity in the Aesthetic Vedanta of Rupa Gosvami

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Transforming Traditions Series

Dr Jessica Frazier

God, Being and Beyond: Outlines of a Comparative Theology

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Majewski Lecture

Professor C. Ram-Prasad

While the differences between Sankara's and Ramanuja's systems as found in their respective commentaries on the Brahmasutras are relatively well-known, much commented on and highly influential in the living traditions, there has been surprisingly little attention paid to a comparative understanding of their Bhagavad Gita commentaries. Yet, in those works, they offer interpretations particular to the nature and structure of the Gita that do not map directly onto their other standard works. Using an interpretive vocabulary that engages with currents in postmodern Christian theology, I offer readings of each of their treatments of the relationship between the self-declared nature of the divine person, Krsna and his diverse mentions of the mysterious brahman. I suggest that strikingly original views of theology and its connections to metaphysics are found in these great commentaries - views that can contribute to the actual content (and not just the metatheory) of comparative theology.

Vaisnava features of traditional hatha yoga

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:12:00 +0000

www.ochs.org.uk

The Logical Illumination of Mīmāṃsā and Nyāya (to Navyanyāya)

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Purushottama Bilimoria

Shivdasani Lecture

Purushottama Bilimoria, PhD is Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Studies at Deakin University in Australia and Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne. Visiting Professor and Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and Dominican University, San Anselmo, and Shivdasani Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His areas of specialist research and publications cover classical Indian philosophy and comparative ethics; Continental thought; cross-cultural philosophy of religion, diaspora studies; bioethics, and personal law in India. He is an Editor-in-Chief of Sophia, Journal of Philosophy of Religion, Springer. He also edits a book series with Springer on Sophia: cross-cultural studies in Culture and Traditions, Recent publication is Indian Ethics I, Ashgate 2007; OUP 2008, and Sabdapramana: Word and Knowledge (Testimony) in Indian Philosophy (revised reprint), Delhi: DK PrintWorld 2008; ‘Nietzsche as ‘Europe’s Buddha’ and Asia’s Superman, Sophia, vol 47/3 2008; Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion (with Andrew Irvine, Ken Surin et al) Springer 2009. Teaches and publishes on Hindu religious philosophies. Also works on political philosophy, pertaining to ethics of rights, theories of justice, capabilities, education and gender issues in third world, particularly South Asian, contexts.

Hinduism’s Transnational Diasaporias: the view from Oceania

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Purushottama Bilimoria

Shivdasani Seminar

The Problem of Evil and Western Theodicy: But what says Indian Theism and Non-theism to the challenge?

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:22:55 +0000

Prof. Purushottama Bilimoria

Shivdasani Lecture

Debatable Devotion: Candravati's Ramayana

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Mandakranta Bose

How Can Religion Be Studied in South Asian Universities? Or Should It Be?

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Joseph T. O’Connell

Shivdasani Lecture

There is a striking disparity between the prominence of religious factors in personal and collective life of so much of the population of South Asian countries and the extreme rarity of study and research explicitly on religion in the universities of those same countries. This anomalous disparity has recently become a subject of concern to a number of scholars within South Asia as well as to some elsewhere who focus their own scholarship on religion in South Asia. This lecture notes several contributory factors (European origin, cultural differences, colonial precedents, novelty and lack of teachers, teaching resources and teaching positions) but gives primary attention to fear and hostility between religio-political communalist and secularist mentalities and interests as inhibiting academic study of religion.

Krishnadasa Kaviraja’s Caitanya-caritamrta: Its characteristics as a sacred biography

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:14:14 +0000

Prof. Joseph T. O’Connell

Shivdasani Lecture

Sacred biographies of Visvambhara Misra, aka Krishna-Caitanya, (1486–1533) constitute an unusually ample array of texts that for half a century have provided an enduring basis for an otherwise loosely coordinated community of Vaishnava devotees in Bengal and elsewhere. The Caitanya-caritamrta (Nectar-like Acts of Caitanya) of Krishnadasa Kaviraja is the culmination of an inter-related series of such texts. Relying primarily on the Caitanya-caritamrta (in the Bengali and Sanskrit original and in its translation by Edward C. Dimock, Jr.) and drawing upon Tony K. Stewart’s The Final Word, the seminar examines how theological-cum-devotional concerns and institutional loyalties are mediated through the literary forms and strategies employed by the series of ‘biographers’ of Caitanya culminating in Krishnadasa Kaviraja.

The Relationship Between Religious Experience and Religious Belief: Essentialism, Scholarly Naivety, or Logical Positivism?

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Dr Gregory Shushan:

Mysticism Seminar/Interdisciplinary Seminar for the Study of Religions -- In recent decades, the study of ‘religious’ or ‘mystical’ experiences has been criticised by postmodern scholars who argue that because all experience is dependent upon language and culture, it is unintelligible to speak at all of some cross-culturally comparable event called ‘religious experience’. Because experience cannot precede culture, such scholars assert that it is ‘naive’ or otherwise methodologically or theoretically unsound to claim that the origins of religious beliefs can lie in ‘religious’ experience. Furthermore, the argument goes, in claiming that there is such a thing as cross-culturally comparable ‘religious’ experience, we leave the realm of the (ostensibly) objective Study of Religions, and cross the boundary into a kind of universalist theology. The issue thus intersects with various other theoretical problems at the core of the Study of Religions, including comparison per se, and views that the term ‘religion’ itself is a theologising construct. In defence of the study of ‘religious’ experience, this paper attempts to demonstrate the weaknesses in these arguments, firstly by showing that they are based upon a number of mutually-reliant but unproven axioms (themselves culturally-situated within a particular anti-scientific academic paradigm); and by giving cross-cultural examples which show a clear connection between ‘religious’ experience and religious beliefs (with particular reference to near-death experiences). Dr. Gregory Shushan is Perrott-Warrick Researcher at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, University of Oxford, researching comparative afterlife beliefs in small-scale societies worldwide in the contexts of shamanic and near-death experiences. His book, Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations: Universalism, Constructivism, and Near-Death Experience (Continuum Advances in Religious Studies, 2009) was nominated for the 2010 Grawemeyer Award.

Krishna-Chaitanya Bhakti and Rabindranath’s Religion of Man: Their resonance and dissonance

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:30:00 +0000

Prof. Joseph T. O’Connell:

When we think of Rabindranath Tagore in relation to the Krishna-Caitanya religio-literary tradition of Bengal, his youthful Bhanusimher Padaboli immediately come to mind, as they should as the most explicit treatments of a Vaishnava theme in all of his immense literary corpus. But we may also ask what other indications there may be of resonances and dissonances vis-à-vis the Vaishnava tradition elsewhere in his prose and poetry, especially as he grew older. This lecture first reviews his family’s Vaishnava affinities, especially among the women, and the countervailing critical attitudes and policies of the Brahmo Samaj of which he was for some time secretary. It then attempts to assess in what ways and to what degree underlying characteristics of Bengali Vaishnava piety and aesthetics may be reflected or rejected, implicitly if not explicitly in the works of the mature Rabindranath.

Approaches to Religion 4: Semiotics

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:29:44 +0000

Our last seminar will examine the importance of the philosophy of the sign in the study of religions. A key thinker here who we will look at is Bakhtin introduced to the West by Julia Kristeva.

Approaches to Religion 3: Politics

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The third seminar will discuss the relation of religion to politics and the place of religion in the public sphere. We will look at the idea of the critique of religion as emancipatory critique (Nietzsche, Foucault), the exclusion of women from the symbolic order (Kristeva, Irigaray) and how this is articulated in India (Manushi).

Approaches to Religion 2: Sociology

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In this seminar we will reflect on Sociology as a discourse inseparable from Modernity. We will discuss the key ideas of rationalisation (Weber) and reification (Lukacs, Honneth). We will also consider sociology in the Indian context (Madan).

Approaches to Religion 1: Phenomenology

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:31:00 +0000

This seminar will discuss the foundational ideas of the phenomenology of religion derived from Husserl, namely bracketing (the epoche), the reduction to essences, and the transcendental reduction. We will raise questions as to the viability of this approach.

Mystical Traditions in Comparative Perspective: Session Five - The Jewish Roots of Christian Mysticism

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Guy

Stroumsa

Mysticism is a term that has fallen out of use in recent years, partly due to the critique of essentialism in the history of religions, partly due to the recognition that mysticism is particular to tradition and culture and partly due to the orientation to understand religion in terms of a politics of culture that sees religion purely in constructivist terms. The abstraction ‘mysticism’ is a problematic category that has been developed from Christian mystical theology (in contrast to dogmatic or natural theology). Viewing other religions through the lens of ‘mysticism’, particularly the religions of India and China, has tended to give a distorted picture to the West, underlined by Radhakrishnan’s claim, among others, that the east is ‘spiritual’ while the west is ‘material’. Of course, the historical reality of religious traditions is much more complex than this. Nevertheless, religious traditions are interested in, and develop, keen senses of inwardness that lay stress upon a direct understanding or experience of transcendence. While acknowledging the problematic nature of the category ‘mysticism,’ this series of seminars intends to explore the mystical traditions of specific religions in dialogue with Hinduism. The series is seen as an exercise in comparative theology. Short lectures on the mystical traditions would be followed by a response from a Hindu perspective and general discussion.

Mystical Traditions in Comparative Perspective: Session Two - Buddhist Meditation

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Dr Sarah

Shaw:

Mysticism is a term that has fallen out of use in recent years, partly due to the critique of essentialism in the history of religions, partly due to the recognition that mysticism is particular to tradition and culture and partly due to the orientation to understand religion in terms of a politics of culture that sees religion purely in constructivist terms. The abstraction ‚Äòmysticism‚Äô is a problematic category that has been developed from Christian mystical theology (in contrast to dogmatic or natural theology). Viewing other religions through the lens of ‚Äòmysticism‚Äô, particularly the religions of India and China, has tended to give a distorted picture to the West, underlined by Radhakrishnan‚Äôs claim, among others, that the east is ‚Äòspiritual‚Äô while the west is ‚Äòmaterial‚Äô. Of course, the historical reality of religious traditions is much more complex than this. Nevertheless, religious traditions are interested in, and develop, keen senses of inwardness that lay stress upon a direct understanding or experience of transcendence. While acknowledging the problematic nature of the category ‚Äòmysticism,‚Äô this series of seminars intends to explore the mystical traditions of specific religions in dialogue with Hinduism. The series is seen as an exercise in comparative theology. Short lectures on the mystical traditions would be followed by a response from a Hindu perspective and general discussion.

Mystical Traditions in Comparative Perspective: Session One - Islamic mystical traditions‚ Sufis in India

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Mystical Traditions in Comparative Perspective: Session Four - Christian mystical traditions 2 ‚ Understanding Apophaticism

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. George Pattison

Mystical Traditions in Comparative Perspective: Session Three - Christian mystical traditions 1 ‚ The Relevance of Christian Mysticism

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Prof. Oliver Davies

Radical Monotheism of the Qur’an and Equitheism of the Bhagavata Purana: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Allah and Krishna

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This narrowly focused essay proposes to compare the Islamic god Allah as depicted in the Qur’an with the Hindu deity Krishna in the Bhagavata Purana. This paper concentrates on how these two respective texts define the two deities. More precisely, this essay focuses on such issues as transcendence and immanence, creative power and play, obedience and love, and the relationship between God and humans. These various themes are examined from the perspective of comparative theology, which can be defined as an articulation of truths and a realization of a more complete knowledge of God in so far as it is possible by means of theology conceived broadly as inter-religious, comparative, dialogical, and confessional. This paper proposes to use a hermeneutical dialogue, which is an interpretative approach that is intended to lead to better cross-cultural understanding. Such a dialogue is risky because it entails entering the margins between oneself and the other. When the interpreter brings together the representative texts of different traditions, she forms a triadic relationship and dialogue with the context of a marginal situation.

Professor Carl Olson teaches Religious Studies at Allegheny College where he offers courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Religions of China, Zen Buddhism, and comparative phenomena, such as the self and death. Besides over a hundred and eighty reviews and essays in journals, books and encyclopedias, he has published over a dozen books on such topics as the goddess, Mircea Eliade, methodology, comparative philosophy, the Indian renouncer, and the Indian holy man Ramakrishna. His more recent books include the following: Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy: Two Paths of Liberation from Representational Mode of Thinking (SUNY Press, 2000); Indian Philosophers and Postmodern Thinkers: Dialogues on the Margins of Culture (Oxford University Press, 2002);The Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-Historical Introduction (Rutgers University Press, 2005); Original Buddhist Sources: A Reader (Rutgers University Press, 2005); The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-Historical Introduction (Rutgers University Press, 2007); Hindu Primary Sources: A Sectarian Reader (Rutgers University Press, 2007); Celibacy and Religious Traditions (Oxford University Press, 2008), Historical Dictionary of Buddhism (Scarecrow Press, 2009), and Religious Studies: The Key Concepts (Routledge, forthcoming 2010). While at Allegheny College, Professor Olson has been appointed to the following honors and positions: Holder of the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair, 1991-1994; Holder of the Teacher-Scholar Chair in the Humanities, 2000-2003; Visiting Fellowship at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, 2002; and elected Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge 2002.

Comparative Theology in Global Perspective

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Professor Keith Ward

Professor Keith Ward has developed comparative theology and religion in many of his publications over the years. He is particularly interested in comparative theology, the dialogue between religions and the interplay between science and faith. Keith has had a renowned and rich academic career; he taught at Glasgow, St Andrews, London, he was Dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he was the F.D. Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology at the University of London, Professor of History and Philosophy of Religion at King’s College London, and Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. He was also visiting professor at the Claremont Graduate University, he has delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow, and was the Gresham Professor of Divinity at Gresham College. In this seminar Keith will share some of his thoughts on comparative theology and its future direction.

Creation and Chaos in the Bhagavata Purana (Lecture Two)

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A potter gently shapes a lump of clay upon his wheel. A carpenter hews and joins measured pieces of wood. Creation, we see, is often a process of reasoned thought and careful construction. And yet, just as often, creation arises in far more unpredictable circumstances—from chaos, transgression, and failure. This lectures series will examine the interplay of creation and chaos in narratives of the Bhagavata Purana. We will pay special attention to the Bhagavata’s account of the churning of the ocean (a fine example of creation from chaos), as well as the narrative of Jaya and Vijaya’s fall from grace (chaos from creation). Dr. Ravi M. Gupta is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at The College of William and Mary (USA) and an alumnus of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. He completed his D.Phil. in Hindu Studies at Oxford, following which he was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Linacre College. Dr. Gupta has taught a variety of courses in Hinduism and World Religions, and is the recipient of the David Hughes Award for excellence in teaching. Dr. Gupta is the author of The Chaitanya Vaishnava Vedanta of Jiva Gosvami (Routledge, 2007) as well as several articles in academic journals. At present, he and Dr. Kenneth Valpey are working on an abridged translation of the Bhagavata Purana, to be published by Columbia University Press. Dr. Gupta lectures widely in India and the United States, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies.

Creation and Chaos in the Bhagavata Purana (Lecture One)

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Early Vaisnava Texts from Nepal

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:51:51 +0000

Exploring early palm-leaf manuscripts from the NGMPP collection, I came across some rare Vaisnava Tantras which were hardly known from any other source. In this lecture, I will talk about four of such texts which are preserved in palm-leaf manuscripts of the 11–14th centuries.

These texts together provide a broader picture of Vaisnava Tantricism, and suggest that what was happening in the Shaiva fold was very similar to what was happening in the Vaisnava fold. I will briefly present the contents of all these texts and discuss specific features of them.

Hindu Theology: Session Seven - Theological Reasoning Across Traditions

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:04:00 +0000

The last session will focus on the nature of theological reasoning that we have been engaged with in the course and the nature of theological reading. The last session will raise questions about whether reasoning is universal, the nature of Hindu theological truth, and the place of Hindu theological reasoning within the western academy.
Reading:
MacIntyre, W. Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy and Tradition (University of Notre Dame Press, 1990).

Hindu Theology: Session Four - The Saiva commentarial tradition

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:48:00 +0000

The class will discuss the Shaiva tantric revelation. We will begin with the theistic or dualistic Shaiva Siddhanta through focussing on chapter 1 of Ramakaπtha's commentary on the Kira·πáa-tantra. We will see how Ramakaπtha offers a conservative reading of revelation that he regards as the expression of the highest good (and which other teachings (Sastra) do not give).

Hindu Theology: Session Three - The Vedanta Commentarial Tradition part 2

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:44:00 +0000

We will continue our inquiry into the Vedanta with an examination of Ramanuja's commentary on the same text. We will begin to understand the nature of the commentarial tradition as a discussion about the nature of truth across the centuries and the different theological positions developed through history. We will also examine a section from Ramanuja's Vedatasutra.
Reading:
Ramanuja, The Vedatasutras with the Commentary of Ramanuja translated by G. Thibauty, Sacred Books of the East Series (MLBD: Delhi, 1976).

This series of seminars examines the idea and possibility of Hindu theology. It would survey the history and constructive theological thinking in Hindu traditions. For some scholars both terms Hindu and theology are impositions upon South Asia of western categories while for others we can speak about Hindu theology in a coherent way. While the course would certainly wish to problematise the category, the main focus would be textual and hermeneutical. If a discipline is defined by its object and/or its method then we might say that theology is a discipline whose object is not a theos but rather revelation. Such a definition does not necessarily entail intellectual commitments to theism or the truth of revelation but rather roots the discipline in a textual history which develops different kinds of reasoning. Hindu theology would therefore focus on the interpretative and commentarial traditions in the history of Hinduism and encourage critical reasoning about them. In practical terms this would mean that the course would concentrate on classical and medieval periods, particularly the ≈öaiva and Vaisnava theological traditions that have come down to us in Sanskrit commentaries and independent works. It is hoped that the seminars will provoke theological and philosophical reflections on the meaning of the text studied. The seminar series raises questions about the nature of theology, the nature of reasoning, and the task of theological reading in the contemporary context.

Hindu Theology: Session Two- The Vedanta Commentarial Tradition part 1

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:11:00 +0000

The course will present an account of the Vedanta commentarial tradition and discuss detailed readings of key texts. We will begin with Sankara’s commentary on the Brahma-sutra 1.1.1 and his advaita interpretation.

Hindu Theology: Session One - Introduction and Scriptural Authority in Hindu Traditions

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:32:00 +0000

The first seminar will introduce the traditions and themes of the series which will be text historical and thematic. We will raise the question of the coherence of the category ‘Hindu theology’ and the nature and practice of theological reasoning and then begin our examination of Hindu theology through a discussion of the textual sources of Hinduism regarded as primary (sruti) and secondary revelation (smrti). We will also consider the idea of ongoing revelation in Hinduism with particular reference to the medieval tantric traditions. The discussion will focus on two core Upani·π£ads, the earliest, the Brhad-Aranyaka, and the latest, the Svetasvatara.

Reading:
Clooney, Francis. ‘Restoring “Hindu Theology” as a Category in Indian Intellectual Discourse’ in Flood (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (Blackwell, 2003), pp. 447–77
Olivelle, Patrick. The Early Upanishads (OUP 2000)

This series of seminars examines the idea and possibility of Hindu theology. It would survey the history and constructive theological thinking in Hindu traditions. For some scholars both terms ‘Hindu’ and ‘theology’ are impositions upon South Asia of western categories while for others we can speak about ‘Hindu theology’ in a coherent way. While the course would certainly wish to problematise the category, the main focus would be textual and hermeneutical. If a discipline is defined by its object and/or its method then we might say that theology is a discipline whose object is not a theos but rather ‘revelation.’ Such a definition does not necessarily entail intellectual commitments to theism or the truth of ‘revelation’ but rather roots the discipline in a textual history which develops different kinds of reasoning. Hindu theology would therefore focus on the interpretative and commentarial traditions in the history of Hinduism and encourage critical reasoning about them. In practical terms this would mean that the course would concentrate on classical and medieval periods, particularly the ≈öaiva and Vaisnava theological traditions that have come down to us in Sanskrit commentaries and independent works. It is hoped that the seminars will provoke theological and philosophical reflections on the meaning of the text studied. The seminar series raises questions about the nature of theology, the nature of reasoning, and the task of theological reading in the contemporary context.

Mahatma Gandhi at the OCHS 1: The Death of Gandhi

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:59:00 +0000

These four, interrelated talks on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1969-1948) may be considered as an attempt to understand and articulate the coherence of an exemplary life. Given how he regarded it himself—“My life is my message”—Gandhi invites to be read in terms of a consistency in his anubhav (original experience), vichar (thought and ideas), and achaar (conduct and action). To that extent, his is a life which sets itself up almost in opposition to modernity—almost, because it might be reductive to see Gandhi merely as an opponent of modernity. But if the primary tendency of modernity, as Gandhi himself described it in Hind Swaraj (1909), is centrifugal, then Gandhi’s lifework was contrary to modernity in being centripetal. The 100th anniversary of Hind Swaraj, then, affords us a special occasion to re-examine key facets of Gandhi’s life in an integral, rather than fragmentary fashion, asking what he has to say to our own times.

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.

The first of the four presentations, on “The Death of Gandhi,” is a way of recuperating his life through the traces of its violent termination. Such a methodology involves us in a reading of the two sites in New Delhi which have come to memorialize that fatality, Raj Ghat and Gandhi Smriti. Delhi, itself a city of tombs, lends itself well to such a semiology of cenotaphs and sepulchres. Raj Ghat and Gandhi Smriti—the one a state mausoleum, the other a monument to the Mahatma’s martyrdom—might thus yield special insights as texts of national self-constitution and interrogation. However differently they make meaning of the catastrophe, both places beg the same question, “Who killed Gandhi?” And the answers that emerge are, to say the least, somewhat surprising in that they reveal the different kinds of demise that Gandhi has suffered at the hands of a multiplicity of actors.

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).

Hindu understandings of God 2: The theology of Ramanuja

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:17:00 +0000

Prof. Keith Ward

We find the idea of God in different religions and it is theologically interesting that semantic analogues of the category appear across the boundaries of traditions. This series of lectures explores Hindu ideas of God and raises questions about the meaning of God in human traditions and the idea of comparative theology.

Hindu understandings of God 1: Ideas of God in Hinduism

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:10:00 +0000

We find the idea of God in different religions and it is theologically interesting that semantic analogues of the category appear across the boundaries of traditions. This series of lectures explores Hindu ideas of God and raises questions about the meaning of God in human traditions and the idea of comparative theology.

Hinduism One: Lecture Eight

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:09:00 +0000

Prof. Gavin Flood. Eighth in a series of introductory lectures on Hinduism.

Hinduism One: Lecture Seven

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:15:00 +0000

Prof. Gavin Flood. Sixth in a series of introductory lectures on Hinduism.

Hinduism One: Lecture Six

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:31:00 +0000

Prof. Gavin Flood. Sixth in a series of introductory lectures on Hinduism.

Hinduism One: Lecture Five

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:53:00 +0000

Prof. Gavin Flood. Fifth in a series of introductory lectures on Hinduism.

Hinduism One: Lecture Four

lal@ochs.org.uk (Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies) — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:05:00 +0000

Prof. Gavin Flood. Fourth in a series of introductory lectures on Hinduism.