REL 313 - Heroes, Gods and Gurus

This seminar explores the Mahabharata, a massively long epic poem originating in India. It is a “living” epic, with deep and profound ritual, social, theological, and political reverberations continuing up to the present day, in both South and Southeast Asia. Filled with multi-layered narratives about various heroes, gods, and gurus, what is this epic as a religious text? Is it an argument about time, eternity, and salvation? Does it present an argument for the presence of the divine in the day-to-day flow of life? An argument for the proper relations of law, action, and political order? Does it tell us something about the construction of social identity? About the nature of the world and cosmos as such? These and many other questions dominate the focus of this course.

Cross-listed with ENGL 222
3 credits