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| India: A Sacred Geography |
C. Gopinath
10/26/2011
Indian Society Through The Ages
Lectures and Events
Lecture X
"India: A Sacred Geography"
Diana Eck
Professor, Department of South Asian Studies
Harvard University
Sunday, November 6, 2011
3:00pm
Hall A, Harvard University Science Center
One Oxford Street, Cambridge
The India outreach lecture program at Harvard University enters the seventeenth year in 2011 and will continue with the ongoing series of “Indian society through the Ages†for the year. This series that began in 2009 examines the evolution of the Indian society in historical time by piecing together the available evidence from archaeology, monuments, literature and scriptural recitations with analysis based on modern scientific studies. Various schools in Harvard have been active in the work and the lectures have been a process to present the research result for the public knowledge. All lectures are held in Hall A of Harvard University Science Center at 1 Oxford Street in Cambridge.
The first lecture this year will be by Professor Diana Eck on November 6. Professor Eck will talk about her new book “India: A Sacred Geography†to be released by Random House Press next March. A life-long student of India, Prof Eck will present the pilgrim landscape in India that makes the regional coloring to the culture creating a local identity together with the national identity. Her vast collection of stunning location shootings will be documented with the local legends and the folklores. The holy places dot around the entire land and are a representation of various religious traditions that developed in India.
The next lecture will be by Professor Francis X Clooney on December 11. Professor Clooney is a diligent student of vaishnava traditions in India with annual visits to the temples and maths in India. He is a scholar of comparative theology and his topic will be “Hindu Theology.†Here we will explore the Hindu traditions and the foundations of the religious fabric in the traditional Indian homes. Following Professor Clooney, on January 8, we will have a lecture on the topic “Concepts and Methods in the Epic Mahabharata,†by Dr. Kevin KcGrath, Research Associate in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dr. McGrath is a poet and earned his PhD at Harvard in studying the enigmatic character of Karna in Mahabharata. He is a part of the Mahabharata Study Group at Harvard that was featured in the National Public Radio. He will analyze the characters and plots that go into making the intricate web of drama in the epic.
The last winter lecture will be on February 12 with Professor Ramaiah Balachadra from Northeastern University. The title of the lecture will be “Indian Society in Mauryan Times: Gleanings from Kautilya’s Arthasastra.†This will be a historical introduction to the past society as evidenced in official court documents. Professor Balachandra will get into the economics, the statecraft, defense and social structure as described by Kautilya. Being an expert in business administration and social dynamics, together with scholarship in Sanskrit he will bring a modern perspective to the famous author’s work.
Besides being announced in Harvard Gazette, Boston Globe and Lokvani, the lecture group maintains an email mailing list for the interested persons. You can contact Professor C Gopinath at cgopinath2000@yahoo.com to be in the mailing list. Any questions or suggestions on the lectures can be sent to me at bmisra@fas.harvard.edu and I can facilitate discussion. C. Gopinath, Chandrakant Shah chandu420@gmail.com , Thomas Burke thomasburke@aol.com and I comprise the Outreach Committee which hosts the lectures. The lectures are free and all are cordially invited. A thirty minute Question and Answer period is set aside in each lecture for public participation in the discussion.
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