Oriental Languages and Cultures

General objective The general objective of the course is acquisition of an overall picture of the history of Sanskrit philosophico-religious literature (śāstra) with its styles. This competence will be achieved largely by frontal classes, during which the central activity, shared between teacher and students, will consist of the reading, translation and comment of texts from different eras. The mastery of the history of Sanskrit philosophico-religious literature, that is the fundamental competence that students must have developed at the end of the cycle of lessons, can be strengthened by the courses in Indology and Religions and Philosophies of India. Specific objectives Qualifications that signify completion of the course are awarded to students who: • have demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the main turning points in the history of Sanskrit philosophico-religious literature, and are typically at a level that enables them to elaborate original ideas about uncharted areas of these points; • can apply their knowledge and understanding in a manner that indicates that they can understand critically a philosophico-religious text, and have competences typically demonstrated through assessing it in a historical framework; • have the ability to gather and interpret, by preparing brief book reports, relevant data to summarise the contents of a Sanskrit philosophico-religious text; • can communicate, by preparing brief reports to be discussed with the teacher and the other students, information, ideas, problems and solutions relating to the main issues that characterise the reflection on philosophy in India; • have developed those learning skills that are necessary for them to undertake further study of specific areas of the history of philosophico-religious literature.