“Hinduism & Brahmanism,” “Hindu of Foreign Origin” and “The antiquity and the meaning of the term Hindu.” These are subjects of some of the lectures due to be attended by students in the inaugural week of the launch of a new course, M. A Hindu Studies, by the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
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This was the first such postgraduate programme offered by any university in the country, the central varsity said.
In the first batch for the course, the university admitted 45 students, including a foreign student.
The “inter-disciplinary programme” course was in line with the New Education Policy 2020, said rector V.K Shukla. The course would make the world aware of many unknown aspects of Hindu Dharma and help in taking its teachings to more people, he said.
The lecture sessions for the first week of the course also has as subjects, “Evolution of Hindu Dharma”, “What is Hindu Studies” and “Indian Epistemology & Metaphysics.”
Vijay Shankar Shukla, director, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, underlined the need to have such a course and said that the idea behind this went back to 18th century scholar Ganganath Jha and “travels through time to Mahamana [Madan Mohan Malviya].”
“However, the link was broken for some reasons. But, with the initiation of this course the goal appears to have been achieved,” he said.
The course under Faculty of Arts would be conducted in collaboration with the varsity’s Department of Philosophy and Religion, Department of Sanskrit and Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology.
