RELI30753

This course considers the many images of the god Krishna in the literary and religious imagination of the Indian people. After introducing some background of Hindu thought and practice, we shall look at how Krishna appears in different versions and interpretations of the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata, including the famous portion call the Bhagavad Gita. We then examine how Krishna appears in later devotional literature and poetry in the classical Sanskrit tradition, and finally Krishna in popular and regional understandings up to the present day. Credit cannot be granted for both RELI 30773 and RELI 30753.