Death, Dying and the Afterlife in South Asian Religions

BRAND NEW CLASS - Fall 2024!

RELS 2014
Instructor: Dr. Christopher Austin

Fall 2024
Mon. / Wed. 10:05-11:25am

This brand new course introduces students to a wide range of mythologies, doctrines, and practices concerning the experience of death, the afterlife, and emancipation in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. What happens when we die? What becomes of us and what determines our fate? How can survivors ritually assist the departed? How do men and women in South Asia engage differently with doctrines and practices concerning death? Can the power of death be exploited, and what rationales are provided for the practice of self-willed death? By examining such questions, students will learn to appreciate common and unique understandings of the experience and management of death across South Asia in antiquity, the medieval period and contemporary contexts.

Fall 2024
Mon. / Wed. 10:05-11:25

image: Parinirvana of the Buddha. Kushana period (ca. 3rd century CE), Gandhara (Pakistan). Metropolitan Museum of Art