Indian Poetry of Love and War

Catalog description

The course will survey in translation a selection of major works of poetry, drama, and aesthetic theory and criticism from the Sanskrit literary tradition of premodern India. Beginning with selections from the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, traditionally regarded as the “first poem” in the Indian tradition, we will turn to survey prominent examples from the ongoing tradition of epic poetry, the rise of romantic and heroic drama through the works of the fifth century Gupta poet Kalidasa and his successors, and the extensive corpus of Sanskrit and Prakrit lyric poetry from the 2nd to the 14th century AD. (ASIAN-LL)