The Department of South Asian Studies offers courses in Hindi-Urdu, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Tibetan (Classical) (Colloquial) as well as other South Asian languages. Offerings rang in level from introductory language courses to graduate seminars.
South Asian Studies faculty also teach courses in other departments and programs at Harvard, including Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Freshman Seminars, General Education, History, History of Art and Architecture, Music, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Religion.
Browse All Courses
South Asian Studies course listings can be found in the Harvard Course Catalog. To aid in your course search, Q guides course evaluation data (HarvardKey required) are helpful in supplying student feedback about courses.
Featured Course
SAS 110: Four Indian Epics
This course will provide an introduction to the four epics of classical India, and will also include a detailed exploration of the forms that different epic narratives can take. We will begin with a study of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in their Sanskrit forms, and we will then branch off into retellings of these two epics in versions that have appeared over the centuries in the regional languages of India. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to close readings of the Tamil twin epics, Cilappatikaram and Manimekhalai.
No auditors. Must be taken for a letter grade.
Language Tutorials
Nepali, Thai, Colloquial Tibetan, and other South Asian languages (Bahasa Indonesia, Kashmiri, Gujarati, Tamil, Tibetan (Classical), Hindi-Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Nepali, Burmese, and Tibetan (Colloquial)) may also be offered through our language tutorial program. With an emphasis on written expression, reading comprehension, and oral fluency, languages in the tutorial program are offered by petition when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of an undergraduate or GSAS graduate student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. These tutorials need to be approved by the Office of Undergraduate Education. Students must submit a petition in advance of the desired term of study. In the petition, students must demonstrate a strong academic need to take the language and explain how the language study would fit into their overall academic plan. Career and heritage interest in studying the language is not sufficient for approval.