Key thinkers in Hindu Studies - Session five

This seminar series will provide an outline of a discipline with its own dramatic history and discuss some of the different forms that the study of Hinduism has taken with a focus on some of its key thinkers. At the same time, the history of Hindu Studies is inextricably intertwined with the history of the Study of Religion and many key thinkers are shared by these disciplines as demonstrated by the classic example of Max Müller, the indologist who became a founder of Comparative Religion or ‘Religionswissenschaft’. On the other hand, some key thinkers belong to neither of these disciplines, but have had a profound influence on both (such as the sociologist Max Weber). In the seminars we will discuss the work, theories and methodology of some of these key thinkers that remain influential on contemporary approaches to the study of religion in South Asia.