| Subject: Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies Lecture Series |
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Date Posted: Tue, January 16 2007, 10:44:22-4
OCHS Lectures
Hinduism II Series
Prof. Gavin Flood
In these eight lectures we will examine conceptions of liberation and paths leading to liberation in the history of Hinduism.
After an introductory lecture that raises some theological questions about the relation of path to goal and the importance of ritual and asceticism, we will begin with an examination of Samkhya, the philosophical backdrop of Yoga, and move on to the Yoga-sutras, their ideal of liberation as isolation (kaivalya), and the means of achieving that goal. We will trace the development of devotion (bhakti) and examine bhakti and yoga in the Bhagavad Gita before moving into the medieval period. Here the lectures will describe some developments of bhakti in vernacular literatures, focusing on texts that advocate devotion to iconic forms and the later texts that advocate devotion to an absolute without qualities. Here we will also examine the importance of ritual texts and the relation between ritual, devotion and yoga. Lastly we will trace the themes of liberation and path with examples from selected Tantric traditions within Vaisnavism and Saivism.
While the lectures will place texts in their historical contexts, the course will not examine texts in a strictly chronological sequence, the stress being on theme. Throughout, we will raise critical, theological questions through engaging with texts in translation and raise the question about the extent to which liberation is a rhetoric that overlays other cultural forces.
Lecture Schedule
1. Introduction: the question of soteriology in India
2. Sankhya and yoga
3. Yoga-sutras of Patanjali
4. Bhakti and yoga in the Bhagavad-gita and its interpreters
5. Bhakti literatures and ritual texts
6. The Sant tradition: Kabir and Mirabai
7. The Pancaratra
8. Shaivism
Each Friday - Week 1-8 (19 Jan - 9 March) - 9am
Seminar Room - Theology Faculty Centre - St. Giles
The Distinguished Majewski Lecture
The Subhasita as a Social Artefact: Notes toward the History of Ethics in Medieval India
Dr. Daud Ali
Tuesday 27th February (Week 7), 5pm
Oriental Institute, Lecture Room 2
Subhasitas are Sanskrit sayings that generally make a moral point. This lecture will examine the role of 'eloquent speech' in the formation of social and political relationships in medieval India, showing the role of subhasita in the formation of ethics.
Daud Ali is Senior Lecturer in Early Indian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is author of Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India, and, with Ronald Inden and Jonathan Walters, of Querying the Medieval: Texts and the History of Practice in South Asia.
OCHS Seminars
Icon and Murti
Dr. Ken Valpey (OCHS) and Matthew Steenberg (Greyfriars)
This seminar series will examine the issue of representation of the divine in Christian Orthodoxy and Vaisnava Hinduism. Given that God is unknowable and beyond all representation in these traditions, questions will be raised about how a transcendent reality can be represented, the function of such representations, and the degree to which such mediations are thought to be required by tradition.
The first two seminars will offer theological backgrounds to Orthodoxy and Vaisnava Hinduism and the remaining two will examine in more detail conceptual and historical problems in the history of the traditions.
* Week 2, Tuesday 23rd January - Seminar 1
* Week 4, Tuesday 6th February - Seminar 2
* Week 6, Tuesday 8th February - Seminar 3
* Week 8, Tuesdays 6th March - Seminar 4
Tuesdays, 2.00pm
OCHS Library - 15 Magdalen St.
What did Ramakantha contribute to the Buddhist-Brahmanical atman debate?
Dr. Alex Watson
In attempting to refute the Buddhist doctrine of no-Self, Ramakantha absorbed many features of Buddhism. For example, he sided with Buddhism against Nyaya and Vaisesika in denying the existence of property-possessors (dharmins) over and above properties (dharmas), and in denying a Self as something that exists over and above cognition. For him the Self simply is cognition (jnana, prakasa, samvit) and so he has to prove that cognition is constant and unchanging. Dr Watson will present those arguments of Ramakantha's that strike him as his strongest and most original, and he will spend at least the first 10 minutes of the talk introducing, and giving an overview of, the Buddhist-Brahmanical atman debate.
Dr Alex Watson did a DPhil in Oriental Studies. He is an expert in Saiva Siddhanta and related traditions whose work has particularly focussed on Ramakantha. He has published The Self's Awareness of Itself. Bhatta Ramakantha's Arguments against the Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self (De Nobili Research Library, 2006) and is currently working on a book on Ramakantha's understanding of moksa.
Thursday 8th February (Week 4 ) - 2pm
OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St.
Graduate Seminars
A super gift or a conduit: The place of a daughter in the Indian marriage exchange
Pulane Lizzie Motswapon
Tuesday 30th January (Week 3) - 2.00pm - 3.30pm
OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St
Hindu law books thought that merit arose from giving (dana) and from marriage and that the giving away of a daughter (kanyadana) was particularly meritorious.
By giving away his daughter a father was assured of spiritual merit. The marriageable girl (kanya) was regarded as a supreme or 'super' gift and all the other gifts accompanying her were secondary. Indeed, marriage gifts continue to form an integral part of the modern marriage system in the form of the dowry. The girl continues to be given away but her role is subsumed by the property she carries with her to the marital family. This shift in the status of the daughter from supreme gift to conduit or vehicle that facilitates the dowry custom has affected the status of women in contemporary Indian society.
This paper will examine this issue and compare and contrast the role of the daughter in the exchange while taking into account factors that may have contributed to this shift in the status of kanyadana.
Ms Pulane Lizzie Motswapong is a PhD student in Canterbury Christ Church. She is currently working on her thesis entitled "Marriage Dana in Ancient and Modern India: Focus on Hindu Dahej (Dowry) Custom"
Towards a comparative theology of the person: Neo-Vedantic and Byzantine convergence
Nicholas Bamford
Tuesday 27th Feb (Week 7) - 2.00pm - 3.30pm
OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St
Comparative theology is an important area of research in the contemporary world. This paper will develop the idea of the person as a fruitful category for comparative theological inquiry. The seminar will raise questions about the person as an ontological category and its possible future development with particular reference to Saiva theology in dialogue with Orthodox Christianity.
Nicholas Bamford is a PhD candidate in the Theology Dept, University of Chichester. He has research interests in Orthodox Theology and Kashmir Saivism.
Religious Studies Reading Group
Convener: Prof. Gavin Flood
This is an informal reading group oriented towards graduate students. We will meet weekly during term time to discuss a book, paper, or selected chapters of a book. The books and papers will be germane to current debates in the study of religion.
This terms reading will be from Roy Rappaport's Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (CUP 1999).
Fridays at 2.00pm, Weeks 2 - 7
OCHS Library, 15 Magdalen St
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For information on courses, lectures and seminars, publications, research and downloads please refer to our website www.ochs.org.uk or contact us at info@ochs.org.uk
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