15 June (Th) Issues in studying the concepts of Hindu and Muslim

Readings: Ronald Inden, Imagining India (Oxford 1990), pp, 85-130; Edward Said, Orientalism (New York 1978), pp. 1-110; Carl W. Ernst, Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center (Albany 1992), pp. 18-37 

20 June (Tu) Colloquium

Reception for seminar participants at Tony Stewart's house (directions to be provided), 7:30 pm. Triangle South Asia Consortium talk - "Accounts of Yogis in Indo-Persian Historical and Mystical Literature," by Carl Ernst, 8:30 pm.
 

22 June (Th) Hard-to-classify Genres: Muslim-Vaisnava Poets and Bauls of Bengal

Readings: Edward C. Dimock, Jr., "The Bauls and the Islamic Tradition" in The Sound of Silent Guns and Other Essays (Delhi 1989) (handout); Carol Salomon, "Baul Songs, in Religions of India in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Princeton 1995), pp. 187-208; Glen A. Hayes, "The Vaisnava Sahajiya Traditions of Medieval Bengal," ibid., pp. 333-352; George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago 1980)  

29 June (Th) Islam in South Asia

Readings: Richard Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760 (Berkeley 1993; esp. chs. 5, 10); Ernst, Eternal Garden, pp. 38-61, 97-105
 

3 July (M) No Seminar - holiday

6 July (Th) The Sikhs: "Syncretism" Revisited

Readings: Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition (Chicago 1994)
Participant report: Gurudharm Singh Khalsa (St. Lawrence University), "The Sikh Tradition as Anti-Syncretism"
 

10 July (M) Guest speaker: Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida, on Tamil biographies of Muhammad and the Ramayana tradition

Readings: Paula Richmond, "Tamil Songs to God as Child," in Religions of India in Practice, pp. 209-24.
 

13 July (Th) Sants and Sufis

Readings: Charlotte Vaudeville, A Weaver Named Kabir (Oxford 1993); Ernst, Eternal Garden, pp. 155-68. Cf. also Vinay Dharwadker, "Kabir," in Religions of India in Practice, pp. 77-91
Participant report: Kevin Bezner (UNC-Charlotte), "Kabir translations from Tagore and Robert Bly to Charlotte Vaudeville"
 

17 July (M) "Influence" and "Borrowing": Translations from Sanskrit to Arabic and Persian

Readings: Carl W. Ernst, The Pool of Nectar: Islamic Interpretations of Yoga (typescript, to be distributed)
 

19 July (W) Participant report: Larry Warkentin (Fresno Pacific College), "Tansen and Music of the Mughal Court"
 

20 July (Th) Muslim and Christian Complexities in South India

Readings: Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900 (Cambridge 1989).
Participant report: Meg Gentes (University of Colorado), "Translations of Malayalam short stories"
 

24 July (M) Nationalism and Communalism: Reevaluating the Present

Readings: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev. ed. (London and New York, 1993)
Participant report: Lakshmanan Sabaratman (Davidson College), "Translation of a Tamil Muslim saint's biography"
 

27 July (Th) Ayodhya

Readings: Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley 1994).
Participant report: Gerald Carney (Hampden-Sydney College), "Baba Premananda Bharati (d. 1915), an early Hindu missionary to America"
 

31 July (M) Participant Reports: Glen Hayes (Bloomfield College), "Translation and study of a Bengali Vaisnava-Sahajiya Text with emphasis on physical and bodily metaphors"; Bill Harris (Sandhills Community College), "Indian Muslim accounts of pilgrimage to Mecca"; Barbara Cole (Sandhills Community College), "Integrating Indian fiction into the literature courses"

3 Aug (Th) Participant Reports: Robin Rinehart (Lafayette College), "Translation of Punjabi Poems of Bullhe Shah"; Fred Glaysher (Oakland University), "Religion and Modernity in the novels of Tagore, R. K. Narayan, and Salman Rushdie"; Janet Powers (Gettysburg College), "Sufi poetry and Bhakti poetry"