Religion and Material Culture in the Indian Ocean World

(4 Credits)

The Indian Ocean has provided an important avenue for the movement of people, traditions and ideas over centuries. The course explores the cultural exchange in the Indian Ocean world with the spread of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and later Christianity. How are the different regions of the Indian Ocean littorals tied together through networks of piety, pilgrimage and mythologies? Do the surviving material remains that dot the littorals - built structures, religious iconography, inscriptions, maps, travelogues, legends and poetry of traveling saints and mythologies about the Oceanic waters itself, attest this dynamic exchange and interconnectedness? How do the circulation of people, relics and mythologies connect the hinterland with people and places across the waters?