{r}AmopAKyAna: the story of {r}Ama in the {m}ahABArata

• US111.
• The story of {r}Ama is the most popular story in all of India and a masterpiece of world literature. While in its most ancient extant version, it is told in about 25,000 verses in {v}Almiki's large epic poem {r}AmAyaRa, it is summarized in 705 verses in eighteen aDyAyas in the {r}AmopAKyAna in the great epic {m}ahABArata. There it is told to {y}uDizWira who is dejected over the recent abduction of his wife and the exile of his family to the forest. This course reads several chapters of the {r}AmopAKyAna to give intermediate Sanskrit students a firm grounding in the precise understanding of every detail of each verse including sandhi, morphology, and syntax.
• Instructor: Peter M. Scharf.
• Prerequisite: US101–102 or equivalent introduction to Sanskrit.
• Schedule: 14 September – 18 December 2023.
• Course meeting times: Monday and Thursday 11:00am-12:00noon U.S. Central Time.
• Course fee: $1,500.
• Register.
• Course materials:
  Scharf, Peter M. Rāmopākhyāna — the story of Rāma in the Mahābhārata: an independent-study reader in Sanskrit. Revised edition. Providence: The Sanskrit Library, 2023. Volume 1: Introduction and first half, Volume 2: Second half, appendices, and index. Either in Devanagari or in Roman:
  Devanagari:
  • Volume 1: ISBN: 978-1-943135-08-0
  • volume 2: ISBN: 978-1-943135-09-7
  
  Roman:
  • Volume 1: ISBN: 978-1-943135-10-3
  • volume 2: ISBN: 978-1-943135-11-0
  
  Available from the instructor.

Lecture	Topic
1	Introduction to the {r}AmopAKyAna and use of the independent-study reader.
2	MBh. 3.257: the context of the story in the {m}ahABArata.
3	The {r}AmopAKyAna.