1. What is indology?

Question 1

Indology Definition and scope

Answer 1

Academic Study of Languages and Cultures of India, the Indiansubcontinent, and “Indianized” South and Southeast Asia

Question 2

Relevance of Indology

Answer 2

languages, scripts, ideologies of power, intellectual traditions, religions stemming from Ancient India exerted a profound influence over much of Asia.
Ø India today the most populated country, the largest democracy, one of the fastest-growing economies
Ø Its past is “present” at every turn in the contemporary world: The current
nationalistic regime constantly refers to and instrumentalises India’s past to justify its political agenda. Therefore, non-partisan academic understanding of Classical Indian culture is especially important.

i.e. worldwide spread of buddhism

Question 3

key dates modern India

Answer 3

1947: independence of India, and partition between India and Pakistan

1971: Separation between Bengladesh and Pakistan

Question 4

key religious traditions

Answer 4

Indus Civilisation (ca. 2600–1750 BCE)

Vedic Period ca. 1750–400 BCE
Vedic period: 1500–1000 BCE
Brāhmaṇa exegesis+ Upaniṣads: ca. 1100–500 BCE

Emergence of Śramaṃic religions: ca. 5th century BCE

Jainism: remains minority religion till today

Buddhism: pan-Asiatic religion, mostly disappeared from India between 13th and 19th century revival.

Emergence of Brahmanical “Hinduism”: ca. 4th century BCE–early centuries CE.

Classical “Hinduism”: 300–ca 1300 CE
Prominently Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism, dominant to this day
Arrival of Islam in (parts of India): 8th century CE.

Question 5

Sources

Answer 5

• Monuments city remains, defensive walls, water-bodies, monastic compounds, temples, chapels, funerary mounds…
  ™ Sculptures, reliefs, wall- and cloth-paintings…
  ™ Other archaeological artefacts: pots, vessels, coins, seals…
  ™ Inscriptions, of various lengths and types: donative, label, charters, edicts, formal verse eulogies, memorial…
  ™ Literary texts (authored and non-authored), in a wide variety of genres: discourses, monastic prescriptions, commentaries, treatises, apologetic and polemical tracts, protective and ritual texts, manuals for practice, Belles Lettres, theatre, letters, ledgers, travelogues and accounts of foreign envoys…
  ™ Living traditions (observable through field research), only partly reliant upon the written word, involved in the long-term transmission of knowledge, such as ritual know how, poetry, and the performing arts.