COML632 - Masterpieces of Sanskrit Culture: Literature, Philosophy, and Science

This course, wholly conducted in English translation from the Sanskrit, will identify a history of *masterpieces* from the Sanskrit tradition and carefully read selections or whole works that exemplify the most well-received classical Sanskrit works over the past two millennia. We will focus on the high classics of Sanskrit literature, sutras and commentaries on systematic forms of Indian philosophy, and selections from Sanskrit texts on the social, literary-critical, exact, and medical sciences. Students will be encouraged to engage with these works through the prisms of comparative literary theory, critical translation studies, comparative philosophy, and broader perspectives of social and cultural history.