Indian Religions and Civilization

The course aims to present the historical outlines of the most relevant cultural phenomena and movements of South Asian civilizations, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages; the main currents of thought, conceptions of reality, mythological imagery, literary expressions of the Indian civilization will be especially implied, in order to provide a critical perspective, for the understanding of the cultural complexity.

The course aims to provide students with knowledge, understanding and ability as follows:
- Knowledge of historical, geographical and cultural contextualization of the main currents of thought, and mythological and literary representations of the Indian civilization; understanding of the complex relationships between manifold aspects of the cultural heritage of South Asia.
- Knowledge and appropriate use of analytic means for the understanding of the cultural complexity and the development of critical perspective.
- Knowledge of specific lexicon and linguistic elements of correlated textual sources;
- Ability to critically consult the reference texts and their bibliography, understanding their main arguments, and applying diverse interpretative theories.
- Ability to critically evaluate sources on the internet and other media.