2021-22

This course offers an introduction to Persian philology as it developed in South Asia during the late Mughal period. Our aim is to observe how Persian was studied as a literary idiom and how poems were read taking grammar as a point of entry.
The first sessions will provide an introduction to some fundamental methods and basic terminology of Indo-Persian philology. We will read the short prefaces of two traditional grammars: Anṣārī Jaunpūrī (d. 1225/1810, Murshidabad)'s Qawāʿid-i fārsī and ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ Hānsawī (fl. 2nd half 17th)'s Risala-yi ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ. Then, we will look at a selection of examples to see how this grammatical knowledge was used to analyze the language of classical mathnawīs by closely reading the comments made on some verses taken from Jāmī's Yūsuf o Zulaykhā.
After these introductory classes, will focus on Akbar (r. 1556-1605)'s poet laureate (malik al-shuʾarā) Faiḍī's Nal Daman. Nal Daman is a mathnawī that is part of an unfinished project of khamsa. The poem is the adaptation of a very popular story found in the Sanskrit Mahābhārata and in several South Asian vernacular versions. In class will use a 19th-c. lithographed edition of Nal Daman that contains a ḥāshiya.

This is a broadly chronological survey of South Asia’s literary traditions. In the first part of this two-part sequence, our focus will be on the first millennium CE, and we will read a wide variety of literary works in translation: lyric poetry, stage plays, courtly epics, romances and satires. We will read these texts as representing both evolving traditions of literary art and a diverse constellation of social imaginaries. Our conversations will thus range over: questions of language, genre, form and style; subcontinental traditions of poetics, which elaborated the themes and techniques of literary art; issues of sexuality and gender; the intellectual and religious traditions with which works of literature were in conversation; contexts of performance; and issues of literary history. We will sometimes read short texts in the original languages (Prakrit, Tamil and Sanskrit) to gain a better understanding of their texture and technique, but no prior knowledge of South Asian languages is required. The second part of this two-part sequence will cover South Asian literature from about 1000 to 1750. The courses may be taken in any order.

Central to the cultural politics of nineteenth-century North India, the language debate over Hindi and Urdu has been viewed both as an instance of Hindu-Muslim elite competition over economic and political power and as an ideological process of identity formation in which language and script became charged cultural and political symbols. This course traces the history of the Hindi-Urdu controversy from its local beginnings in the North-Western Provinces of British India in the 1830s to the debates over the national language of India and Pakistan in the years leading up to Independence. We will explore the role of prominent figures and institutions in the divisive process in which Hindi came to be exclusively identified with Hindus, and Urdu with Muslims. Paying close attention to a variety of primary sources, we will discuss the cultural, political, and socioeconomic implications of the language debate in the context of Indian nationalism and Muslim separatism.

The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Basic knowledge of Hindi and/or Urdu is required.

This sequence follows the textbook Marathi in Context (with its online supplement Marathi Online) in its focus on developing the basic skills-comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing-of Marathi language use. It covers all the fundamentals of Marathi grammar, but only as they are encountered in context, within a wide array of social and conversational "situations."

TBD

Readings from Hindi literary and journalistic texts and a wide array of other sources depending on student interests, with continuing grammar review and practice in listening comprehension, composition and speech.

Readings from Hindi literary and journalistic texts and a wide array of other sources depending on student interests, with continuing grammar review and practice in listening comprehension, composition and speech.

This intermediate Hindi sequence presupposes knowledge of the basic grammar of Hindi and requires substantial reading and translating of Hindi prose, alongside exposure to advanced Hindi grammar topics. Regular attention is given to conversation and composition. Texts in Hindi.

Students attending this course must be able to produce an articulate discourse on subjects related to history and literary criticism. They should also have a good command of Bengali grammar. The course is mainly devoted to the study of selected modern and premodern Bangla texts (narrative literature, devotional and courtly poetry, treatises) in their historical contexts. We propose various readings in the historiography of Bangla literature, philology, traditional performance of Bangla poetry, etc... Besides, material from all periods will be studied according to the student's scholarly interests.

This sequence is a continuation of First-Year Bangla and aims at gaining intermediate high proficiency in the language. Students who have prior knowledge of elementary Bengali can join the course. The course concentrates equally on speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. At the end of the course the learner is supposed to have a command of Bengali language and culture that allows him/her to communicate with native speakers with ease. He/she will have sufficient reading abilities to comprehend non-technical modern texts. Evaluation will be based on classroom performance, homework assignments, projects, tests, and final examination.