An introduction to the tabla, the premier drum of north Indian and Pakistani classical music traditions.

This course will take the student through the major topics of Indian philosophy by first introducing the fundamental concepts and terms that are necessary for a deeper understanding of themes that pervade the philosophical literature of India -- arguments for and against the existence of God, for example, the ontological status of external objects, the means of valid knowledge, standards of proof, the discourse on the aims of life. The readings will emphasize classical Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophical articulations (from 700 B.C.E to 16th century CE) but we will also supplement our study of these materials with contemporary or relatively recent philosophical writings in modern India.

This course seeks to introduce students to the diversity of doctrines held and practices performed by Buddhists in Asia. By focusing on how specific beliefs and practices are tied to particular locations and particular times, we will be able to explore in detail the religious institutions, artistic, architectural, and musical traditions, textual production and legal and doctrinal developments of Buddhism over time and within its socio-historical context. Religion is never divorced from its place and its time. Furthermore, by geographically and historically grounding the study of these religions we will be able to examine how their individual ethic, cosmological and soteriological systems effect local history, economics, politics, and material culture. We will concentrate first on the person of the Buddha, his many biographies and how he has been followed and worshipped in a variety of ways from Lhasa, Tibet to Phrae, Thailand. From there we touch on the foundational teachings of the Buddha with an eye to how they have evolved and transformed over time. Finally, we focus on the practice of Buddhist ritual, magic and ethics in monasteries and among aly communities in Asia and even in the West. This section will confront the way Buddhists have thought of issues such as "Just-War," Women's Rights and Abortion. While no one quarter course could provide a detailed presentation of the beliefs and practices of Buddhism, my hope is that we will be able to look closely at certain aspects of these religions by focusing on how they are practiced in places like Nara, Japan or Vietnam, Laos.

The history of Christianity is often told from the perspective of its spread westward from Israel to Rome. Yet, in the first millenium, there were more Christians living in the East, in places as far away as Persia, Yemen, India, China, and Mongolia, than in the West. Spread across the Asian continent, these Christians were actively involved in local and imperial politics, composed theological literature, and were deeply embedded in the cultural fabric of their host societies. This course traces the spread of Christianity eastward, paying particular attention to its regional developments, its negotiations with local political powers, and its contact with other religions, including Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Islam. Readings will cover a broad range of sources, including selections from classical Syriac literature, Manichaean texts, Mesopotamian magic bowls, the so-called "Jesus Sutras," and the Quran. All readings will be provided in English, and no background is presumed.

How can we understand the social, political, and religious dimensions of modern India through its music? This course introduces students to key themes that undergird the history and practice of music India across a range of musical genres and subregions. We explore music on the modern Indian subcontinent as it relates to colonialism, nationalism, caste, class, gender, and religion. Topics include the twentieth-century reinvention of “classical music”; the popular music of Bollywood; Dalit musical traditions; the soundscapes of hip-hop, clubbing culture, and queer nightlife in South Asian contexts and more. We also critically unpack the making of normalized categories such as “folk” and “classical,” illuminate marginalized histories of non-elite performers, ask questions about profession and livelihood, and think about the role of the state as patron of the arts. The course involves lectures, interactive engagements with live performance, film screenings, and class discussions and presentations.

This class is designed to structure reflection on Islam and Islamic culture in South Asia, including intensive discussions on the placement of boundaries of “Islamic” culture, performance, and identity. We will ask where and how these boundaries have evolved with reference to language, ritual, politics, and nationalism in South Asia. We will position our readings and reflections in the disciplines of Religious Studies and Social and Cultural History. If you already have a solid background in South Asian history, this class is perfect for you. If you do not, you will need to do more work behind the scenes to get the basics in place to participate fully in course discussions. We will structure our study with particular attention to significant urban spaces in South Asia. While studies of what constitutes a public and even a nation have focused on the impact of European models, the particular interaction of Islam with all other identity-constitutive areas of life must be grounded in the South Asian context. To drive this home, each of the topics will be grounded in a particular urban space or set of connected urban spaces; we will also consider the differences between this approach and prominent intellectual history approaches. How are public spaces imagined in South Asia, and how are they linked to identity? This class takes a typological approach to studies of the public in South Asia; namely, instead of the public arriving as a European import, this course assumes that we can observe public formation particular to South Asia and independent from European public characteristics. The class will involve regular consideration of a range of primary sources including amulets in the Penn Museum collection and original documents held in the Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Library of Congress.
For this class, you must have some background in study of South Asia and/or study of Islam. Aside from guiding reflection on literature key to the history of Islam in South Asia, the course is also designed to help you learn how to do several tasks essential to the work of a productive academic professional. You will learn to:
Participate confidently in seminars and scholarly discussions on shared readings.
Read effectively and efficiently for seminar discussions.
Lead seminar discussions.
Design and execute an independent research project relevant to the class.
Design, pitch, and present a 20-minute seminar paper

This seminar addresses topics in the art of India from antiquity to the present emphasizing global connections and comparisons. Topics vary from year to year and might include the arts of the book in South Asia; Indian painting, 1100-now; history and theory of museums in the colony, 1750-1950; photography, cinema, and performance art in South Asia; and art, ecology, and environment in South Asia. We shall explore objects in area collections and incorporate special excursions and programs when possible. A background in South Asian studies or languages is not required. Students from related disciplines such history, anthropology, literary studies, religious studies, feminist studies, cinema and media studies, and architecture are welcome.

The purpose of this course is to present a variety of narrative genres and to discuss and illustrate the modes whereby they can be analyzed. We will be looking at shorter types of narrative: short stories, novellas, and fables, and also some extracts from longer works such as autobiographies. While some works will come from the Anglo-American tradition, a larger number will be selected from European and non-Western cultural traditions and from earlier time-periods. The course will thus offer ample opportunity for the exploration of the translation of cultural values in a comparative perspective.

Ancient India's two epic poems, originally composed in Sanskrit and received in dozens of languages over the span of two thousand years, continue to shape the psychic, social, religious, and emotional worlds of millions of people around the world. The epic Mahabharata, which roughly translates to The Great Story of the Descendants of the Legendary King Bharata, is the longest single poem in the world (approximately 200,000 lines of Sanskrit verse in the 1966 Critical Edition) and tells the mythic history of dynastic power struggles in ancient India. An apocalyptic meditation on time, death, and the utter devastation brought upon the individual and the family unit through social disintegration, the epic also serves as sourcebook for social and political mores and contains one of the great religious works of the world, The Bhagavad Gita (translation: The Song of God), in the middle of its sprawling narrative. The other great epic, The Ramayana (Rama’s Journey), though essentially tragic and about the struggles for power in ancient India, offers a relatively brighter narrative in foregrounding King Rāma, an avatar of the supreme divinity Viṣṇu, who serves as an ideal for how human beings might successfully negotiate the challenges of worldly life. Perhaps the most important work of ancient Asia, the Rāṃāyaṇa also provides a model of human social order that contrasts with dystopic polities governed by animals and demons. Our course will engage in close reading of selections from both of these epic poems (in English translation) and scholarship on the epic from the past century. We will explore the Sanskrit epic genre, its oral and textual forms in South Asia, and the numerous modes for interpreting it over the centuries. We will also look at the reception of these ancient works in modern forms of media, such as the novel, television, theater, cinema and the comic book/anime.

What makes India INDIA? Religion and Philosophy? Architectural splendor? Kingdoms? Caste? The position of women? This course will introduce students to India by studying a range of social and cultural institutions that have historically assumed to be definitive India. Through primary texts, novels and historical sociological analysis, we will ask how these institutions have been reproduced and transformed, and assess their significance for contemporary Indian society.