Hindu saints and poets: Perspectives and examples (seven lectures)

This course will focus on the history of Hinduism as it encompasses the religious experience of its holy men and women. Very often, besides being "saints" in the Hindu sense, they were gifted philosophers and/or poets. After the historical and methodological introduction, subsequent lectures will illustrate the contributions of these thinkers and creative writers to the history of Hindu literature. Finally, from the nineteenth century onward modern history-of-religions and literary-critical approaches will be more emphasized to help our understanding of saintly phenomena which are very much alive in contemporary Hinduism.