BA in Oriental Languages and Cultures — Indology Track

Entrance to the first cycle, i.e. the bachelor (BA) course (180 credits), is permitted on the basis of the applicant’s secondary school results and some further factors such as language certificates, results in student competitions, etc.

The student is admitted to the bachelor programme entitled “Oriental Languages and Cultures”, in which he or she has to choose the “track” Indology, which requires the ful­fillment of a total of 120 credits. Additional 50 credits have to be collected through the fulfillment of a so-called “minor” programme and further 10 credits are reserved for free elective subjects. The Indology BA programme is currently available only in Hungarian language.

Language Courses

One of the main objectives of the first three semesters is to equip the students with a sound basic knowledge of Sanskrit and Hindi, which can then serve as a tool for their further studies. Throughout the course, studies in Sanskrit and Hindi proceed in parallel. At the end of the first year, an examination is held to assess the students’ knowledge of the descriptive grammar (phonetics, morphology, syntax) and the basic vocabulary of Sanskrit and Hindi, success in which is a prerequisite for continuation of study.

Students of the BA programme also have to study a further oriental language (first of all, Pali or Urdu) for two semesters.

Text Reading and Conversation Classes

Following the language courses, from the fourth semester onwards, the students’ knowledge of Sanskrit and Hindi is deepened through text readings (in Sanskrit and Hindi) and con­versation classes (in Hindi).

Sanskrit texts to be read during these classes include classical tales from the Hitopadeśa and the Pañcatantra, excerpts from the Indian epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa (such as the story of Nala and Damayantī), the Bhagavadgītā, portions of classical kāvya literature (in particular, Kālidāsa), dharmaśāstra texts, etc. Hindi authors studied in the text reading classes are, among others, Premcand, Mahādevī Varmā, Ajñey, Mohan Rākeś and Rājendra Yādav.

The text reading classes help the students to acquire cultural background knowledge on various topics related to the cultural history of India (cf. the next section) as well as linguistic competence.

Courses on the Cultural History of India

Beside language and text reading courses, various subjects on the culture, history, religions, literatures and arts of India and South Asia and the history of Indo-Aryan languages also make up an integral part of the Indological curriculum already at the BA level. The courses deal with various topics related to both ancient/medieval and contemporary India, which are chosen according to the area of expertise of the teachers and the interest of the students.

At the end of the BA programme, students have to prepare a BA thesis with the help of a supervisor on a selected topic related to any of the subjects studied during the programme and to pass a final examination, which consists of a written part (language test and translation of an intermediate unseen text in both Sanskrit and Hindi) and an oral part (translation of excerpts of Sanskrit and Hindi texts read during the entire BA course and question on topics of Indian cultural history).

Students of Indology are encouraged to choose a “minor” programme that fits their Indological studies in an optimal way. Suggested minors include programmes such as Buddhism, Iranian Studies, Islamic Arts, Cultures of the Silk Road, Tibetan Studies, Art History, Ethnography, Latin and Greek.

The Department of Indian Studies has two “minor” programmes available for students of BA courses other than Indology: Sanskrit minor and Hindi minor. These require the fulfillment of a total of 50 credits and are basically equivalent to the two halves of the Indological “track” of the BA programme “Oriental Languages and Cultures”, and include language courses, text reading and conversation classes, and courses on the cultural history of India.

BA Curriculum: list of study units, or the outline of the three-year BA course in Indian Studies (in Hungarian);
BA Final examination and regulations (in Hungarian)