RELS663 - INTRO TO HINDUISM

From scriptures of hallowed antiquity to riveting epics to ever-popular tele-serials and internet pujas?a bewildering array of narratives, technologies, peoples and ideas have been brought together under the label of "Hinduism". While encyclopedias and guidebooks continue the futile attempts to provide a checklist of the key features of the entity called "Hinduism", the historical reality repeatedly confounds any single definition of the term. The course will explore this diverse and heterogeneous reality by historicising the term "Hinduism". In other words, it will examine Hinduism within the diverse social, cultural and political contexts in which it has been and continues to be enmeshed. From the early Vedic era to contemporary diasporic Hindu communities, the course will provide an introduction to Hinduism as a fluid, multifaceted, heterogeneous reality that has always been shaped by its many historical contexts.