Mar 28, 2024  
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2021-22 
    
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2021-22 [Archived Catalog]

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CLAS 3140 - Indian Epic: Mahabharata and Ramayana


Students engage India”s two great Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They analyze the epics on two levels: first, as historically situated and ideologically interested texts that reflect the social and political upheavals that occurred in South Asia between 500 BCE and 500 CE, and, second, as part of a living oral and scriptural tradition whose influence extends to contemporary Indian religion, ethics, and national consciousness.

Requisites: Soph or Jr or Sr
Credit Hours: 3
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
  • to become familiar with the narrative structures, plots, main characters, and major themes of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana
  • to become familiar with the ways in which the epics reflect and narrate Hindu teachings about ethics, government, the nature of God, and the relationship between humans and the Divine
  • to develop the skills of close reading, evaluating the internal coherence of unfamiliar worldviews, and synthesizing large amounts of information to make clear and focused arguments
  • to understand and appreciate the deep continuities between India and the other Indo-European cultures, including Classical Greece and Rome
  • to understand the historical contexts and the human actors that produced the epics, addressing questions of who, when, where, how, and why
  • to understand the role that the epics play in the religion and culture of contemporary Hindus, not only in India but throughout the world



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