Teaching

MA – S(B): Poetic techniques in Tamil, Manipravalam, Sanskrit, & Prakrit Poetry [W]

Mondays 16:15–17:45, AT1 R-113, from 07.04.2025    Harunaga Isaacson & Eva Wilden

This seminar will look comparatively across South Asian literary traditions, to see if the descriptions of poetic devices given by ancient and medieval theorists may be related.

MA – S(A): Maṇimēkalai: the Buddhist epic of Tamil Nadu [IND 4] [W]

Tuesdays 16:15–17:45, AT1 R-113, from 08.04.2025    Eva Wilden

In continuation from last term, this course will be focused on the Maṇimēkalai, a long narrative poem and one of the few surviving pieces of Classical Tamil Buddhist literature. We will be picking up from where we left off last term, at the start of Canto 11: 'the canto in which Maṇimēkalai receives the (magical, automatically refilling) begging bowl'.

SLV (A): Introduction to Classical Tamil [W] 

Mondays 14:15–15:45 & Thursdays 12:15–13.45, AT1 R-113, from 07.04.2025    Eva Wilden

This introductory course will prepare students to read a wide range of genres in Classical Tamil, from the earliest anthologies of love poetry to the devotional songs of the Bhakti age.

S: Tolkāppiyam Kaṟpiyal: poetics of love in marriage [W]

Thursdays 16:15–17:45, AT1 R-113, from 10.04.2025    Eva Wilden

In continuation from last term, this course will be a close reading of the chapter in the Tolkāppiyam Poruḷatikāram dealing with kaṟpiyal, the poetics of love in married life.

S: Introduction to Tamil Siddha poetry. Yoga, Alchemy and Liberation [W]

Tuesdays 14:15–15:45, AT1 R-113, from 08.04.2024   Nikolay Gordiychuk

This seminar will introduce the poetry of the Tamil Cittars, a unique corpus of literature and esoteric practice that emerged from a confluence of traditions in Tamil Nadu in the 2nd millennium CE.

S: Readings in Tamil Traditional Śāstras (grammar, lexicography, metrics) [W]

Thursdays 14:15–15:45, AT1 R-113, from 10.04.2025    Jean-Luc Chevillard

In this course, students will be introduced to the Tolkāppiyam, the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. Although often described as a grammatical treatise, it also contains a section on lexicography as well as an exposition of Classical Tamil metrics. In this term, in addition to the Tolkāppiyam, part of each session will be devoted to a first exploration of Tamil traditional poetical vocabularies, nowadays often referred to as nikaṇṭu.

S: Cilappatikāram, cantos X–XI [W]

Mondays 12:00–13:30, AT1 R-113, from 07.04.2025    Neela Bhaskar

This seminar will be focused on the Cilappatikāram, the earliest extant epic poem in Classical Tamil. This term will focus on the tenth and eleventh cantos, bridging the Book of Pukār and the Book of Maturai.