MAHE: Department of Philosophy to launch Master’s in Sanskrit Studies
Manipal, Sept 03, 2021: The Department of Philosophy (DoP) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) will launch a Master’s in Sanskrit Studies from this academic year.
The launch of Master’s in Sanskrit Studies will be set off by the inaugural address ‘The Importance of a Multidisciplinary Approach to Liberal Arts in India’ highlighting the case for Sanskrit in the current educational scenario. Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chair of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), will deliver the inaugural address on Sept 3 at 3 pm via Zoom – https://bit.ly/orientation3sep2021
The address will be a part of the orientation day for its master’s students in European Studies, Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit Studies organized jointly by the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence – Manipal Centre for European Studies (MCES) and the Department of Philosophy (DoP).
The event is open to all. Subsequently, the students will go through rigorous one-week immersion program sessions (seminars and workshops) conducted by various professors from institutes like – IIT Bombay and Kharagpur, Manipal University Jaipur, Krea University and MAHE, Manipal before the actual classes begin.
As a constituent of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, the Department of Philosophy conducts teaching and research activities in the areas of Humanities and Social Sciences through academic programs, projects, publications, and events.
In consonance with the National Education Policy (NEP), the Department aims at transcending the disciplinary boundaries and offers two multidisciplinary programs – MA Indian Philosophy and MA Sanskrit Studies and other courses in humanities.
With a team of promising scholars who are the beneficiaries of prestigious Erasmus Plus and Raman Charpak research fellowships at European universities, the Department is collaborating with the University of Toronto, Canada on a project on Indian dialectics and argumentation funded by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI), New Delhi.
It has also developed the first searchable Digital Concordance – MAHE Mahabharata with three critical editions (http://mahabharata.manipal.edu/). The Department has brought out several scholarly translations and publications and is conducting interdisciplinary research in the areas of philosophy, literature, digital humanities, and computational linguistics, the release stated.
MA Indian Philosophy program
The MA Indian Philosophy program involves critical and interdisciplinary engagements with Indian discourses and introduces philosophizing as a skill set which students can incorporate in their approach to other academic fields, as an acquired life skill, and as a professional competence necessary for diverse career pursuits.
The program accommodates students from diverse academic backgrounds and offers ample exposure to a variety of philosophical subjects such as ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and linguistics.
MA Sanskrit Studies:
The two-year MA Sanskrit Studies provides an opportunity to acquire proficiency in the Sanskrit language and study its linguistic foundations, while also understanding Sanskrit as a broadly deployed medium of intellectual, literary, artistic, and religious expression in India.
It incorporates an attempt to trace and reconstruct the intellectual history of India and develop a familiarity with the ongoing debates and topics in the study of Sanskrit. The program aims at equipping students with the skills necessary for interpreting and analyzing Sanskrit texts of various genres – epic, poetry, commentary, and exploring the intertextual links between discourses in pre-modern and modern Indian literature. Both the programs offer a yearly exit option with a PG Diploma, concluded the note.
