The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has launched a Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems. It will focus on a deeper study of mathematics and astronomy in India; architectural engineering (including vastu and silpa sastra); Indian political and economic thought; and Indian aesthetics grammatical traditions.
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, president, and Shri Kumar Tuhin, director- general of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, inaugurated the Centre. Mr. Sahasrabuddhe called for a deeper study of India’s contribution to science and technology, architecture, linguistics, arts, culture, economics and politics and suggested that the findings be disseminated.
Aditya Kolachana is the Centre’s principal investigator. The faculty members include Arun Menon; Manu Santhanam; Santosh Kumar Sahu; Sudarsan Padmanabhan; Rajesh Kumar; and Jyotirmaya Tripathy. The Indian Knowledge Systems Division of the Union Education Ministry is funding the Centre.
Mr. Tuhin and Raghunathan Rengaswamy, Dean, Global Engagements, IIT Madras, signed the agreement for collaboration on Saturday.
Mr. Raghunathan said the Centre would create a conducive environment for foreign students to study in India and internationalisation of Indian campuses.
The Centre is aimed at publishing quality research into Indian knowledge systems by involving researchers and scholars from outside and disseminate the findings. It will offer IIT students courses on the thematic areas and subsequently on the NPTEL platform.
It will hold workshops to familiarise schools with the various aspects of Indian knowledge systems and reach out to people through popular writings, including social media posts.
