Doctor of Philosophy in South Asian

At the graduate level, the South Asian Languages Program offers both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, with concentrations in Hindi, Sanskrit, and Buddhist Studies. It provides an excellent environment for not only developing advanced proficiency in South Asian languages, but also, through its various classes, seminars, and colloquia, for acquiring professional training in the description, analysis, and critical interpretation of South Asian languages and literary texts. A sample of classes and seminars rarely taught elsewhere include those on the decipherment, translation and interpretation of early Buddhist texts, Sanskrit Epigraphy, on the life of Buddha in comparative perspective, on Pali, Prakrit, and Gandhari, on medieval Hindi literary languages (e.g. Braj, Avadhi, Rajasthani) and literatures and on the study of Indian religious themes and motifs throughout history.There are several areas of research in which the Department's faculty and programs in South Asian languages are particularly well known, including the following: Sanskrit literature and language; Middle Indo-Aryan languages and literatures; Indian religion; Buddhist studies; epigraphy, paleography, and the history of Indic writing systems; Hindi and Indo-Aryan linguistics; medieval devotional texts and religion; comparative mythology; hagiography, and the description of Indian gods and goddesses throughout the course of South Asian history. The Department of Asian Languages and Literature is the home of the Early Buddhist Manuscript Project, a joint enterprise of the University of Washington and the British Library, which has attracted international attention for its research into the language and texts of the earliest surviving written materials of the entire Buddhist tradition.

A graduate student is expected to maintain a 3.00 cumulative grade point average. Once accepted into the Ph.D. program the student shall formally establish their three fields of specialization, at least two of which must be taken with faculty in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature. The three fields in the aggregate must represent a broad coverage of language and literature