Welcome to the Department of Indian Sub-Continental Studies!

The Department of Indian Sub-Continental Studies offers both undergraduate and postgraduate programs of study.

Undergraduate units of study are offered in Sanskrit, Pali and Hindi/Urdu and in Indian cultural and comparative religious studies. Units of study on Indian philosophy, Buddhism and Hinduism are taught in English through the Asian Studies program.

The study of Sanskrit language, the most important classical language of India, is central to the Indian Studies program. So is the combined study of Hindi and Urdu, the most widely spoken and official languages of India and Pakistan respectively. You can choose to take a major in either of these areas and continue your Sanskrit studies into fourth year Honours. You can also choose to enrol in introductory units in Pali language, an important language for Buddhist writings, and explore topics in Indian philosophy, religion, history and culture.

We assume you have no prior knowledge of any language of the Indian sub-continent. The Sanskrit course aims to give you reading competency of classical Indian texts, while the Urdu/Hindi courses aim to develop your skills in speaking, listening to and writing Hindi and Urdu. Class sizes for Indian Studies units are small and you will benefit from close interaction with the academic staff. No other university in NSW teaches the classical Indian languages; indeed, some of your classes will be satellite linked with the Australian National University in Canberra.

If you are enrolled in a degree other than the BA at the University of Sydney, or any degree at another University, or if you are a graduate of the University of Sydney (or equivalent), there is an option to learn Sanskrit by enrolling in a Diploma of Language Studies.

The department also has an active postgraduate program, supervising postgraduate research degrees in a number of subject areas including both language and various fields of research in Buddhism. Staff also participate in the teaching of the Master of Buddhist Studies program. Postgraduate students have the opportunity to study Pali language as part of their studies.

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On the Sanskrit language...

"The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists"

- Sir William Jones, Third Anniversary Discourse, Asiatic Society (Calcutta), 2 February 1786.