In order to further formalize IKS education, the technical education regulator has invited B Mahadevan, Professor of Operations Management, IIM Bangalore, from Vinayak Rajat Bhat and RN Nagendra Pawan, both from Chinmaya Vishwavidyalaya, to present an article titled ‘Introduction to Indian Knowledge Systems, Concepts and Applications’. Textbook is started. , Ernakulam.
Speaking about the importance of IKS to present-day engineers, Mahadevan cited the wide spread of mathematical concepts such as Pascal’s triangle, principles of binary math, and algorithms in ancient knowledge systems. Mahadevan, who teaches ‘Management Paradigms from the Bhagavad Gita’ and ‘Introduction to Sanskrit Language’ at IIM, says, “Exposure to traditional and contemporary concepts will bring engineers closer to their cultural ethos, expand their intellectual horizons and help them Confidence will increase.” Bangalore which has 3 credit elective courses on IKS of 30 hours duration. IITs also have a keen interest in IKS, but more as an extra-curricular activity, says Uday Shankar Dixit, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Guwahati and head of the institute’s Center for Indian Knowledge Systems, which has started a PhD program. and short duration courses on ‘Spoken Sanskrit’ and ‘Spoken Assamese’ since its inception in November 2021. “Our institute is also teaching courses from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, many of which have IKS flavour. The fact that NEP 2020 advocates a good education system to impart knowledge of 64 arts or arts and eliminate rigid boundaries between subjects, makes IKS more relevant in HEIs,” says Dixit.
However, at IIT Gandhinagar, the IKS elective course dates back to 2016, long before the NEP 2020 is due. Michel Danino, coordinator and visiting professor at the Institute’s Center for Archaeological Sciences and IKS Course, says, “This is based on the perceived need to bring together many good scholars to build a rounded vision of India as a knowledge civilization.” Was.” “The curriculum is also in keeping with the institute’s vision of being more than an engineering college – a place where multi-disciplinary and interpersonal discipline will enrich the horizons of the students and better prepare them for the challenges of life.
“We started with a broad panorama of IKS encompassing science, philosophy, art etc, then moved on to the ‘Ancient Idea of India’ with all its rich mechanisms of ancient Indian society, technologies and finally cultural integration. We explored Indian art and aesthetics last year, and now Indian literature. Since this is an unconventional, multi-instructor course with a different subject every year, the students at our institute have been relatively few (10 to 20 on average), but The course has also attracted many students from outside the institute, including the National Institute of Design (NID), IIM-Ahmedabad and local colleges,” he says.
Danino regrets that there is a large amount of excellent scholarly material in almost all areas of IKS, which is not available to most students. “We need to create content – textbooks, videos, animations, etc – that will attract and excite students, yet without compromising on their authenticity.”
Ultimately every discipline of IKS should find a home in the regular subjects. “For example, the history of Indian mathematics can be easily integrated into regular mathematics programmes; the same is the case with architecture or philosophy or Ayurveda. This is also part of the Desirata of the NEP, but it needs to be done gradually. Will need – we cannot reverse decades of neglect in a few years,” he adds.
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