IIT-Indore offers course in Sanskrit to explore ancient Indian scientific knowledge

The Indian Institute of Technology in Indore has come up with a short-term course in Sanskrit that will explore the mathematical and scientific knowledge contained in ancient Indian texts.

The course, titled ‘Understanding Classical Scientific Texts of India in an Immersive Sanskrit Environment’, aims to create awareness about ancient knowledge among the current generation, an official from the institute said.

The quality improvement programme (QIP), sponsored by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), will have 62 hours of online classes. The course that started on August 22 will end on October 2.

The course has over 750 candidates from all over the world, an IIT Indore official said, PTI reported.

“Ancient texts of India, originally composed in Sanskrit, have a rich heritage of mathematical and scientific knowledge and the present generation is unaware of this. We started this course to make them aware of this ancient knowledge in Sanskrit itself,” said professor Neelesh Kumar, officiating director of IIT, Indore, according to PTI.

The course will have two parts — level 1 will focus on developing familiarity with the Sanskrit language in an “immersive language environment” to develop the ability among students to converse in simple Sanskrit, while level II will consist of lectures on classical mathematical text Bhasakaracharya’s Lilavati. Level II will be open to only those students who clear an online qualifying exam between September 7-9 based on level I with 60% marks.

The free course is open to anyone studying science and engineering from AICTE-approved colleges.