Design of a brick fire altar from the Baudhāyana sūtra that appears along with a statement of "Pythagoras" theorem c.800 BCE.
Saṃskrit is one of the oldest Indian languages in which much of our scientific and technical knowledge from the Vedic to the medieval period has been reported. There is now a growing interest in this scientific heritage, not only to clarify India’s place in the history of science, but also to explore alternative, sustainable, and locally relevant solutions to current societal, environmental, and medical challenges. However, a major obstacle in this endeavor is the inability to read original texts.
With the primary aim of making ancient texts accessible to students and professionals interested in India's scientific tradition, a short-term course on Saṃskrit was offered from 8th September to 4th December 2014. The course covered the Saṃskrit language and the appropriate linguistic tools and methodologies for reading the texts.
There are plans of offering this course on a regular basis under SandHI.
About the Instructor: Dr. Chaitali Dangarikar is a Saṃskrit scholar in the MHRD sponsored SandHI project. Originally trained in traditional and modern Saṃskrit scholarship, she obtained her doctorate degree in the field of Saṃskrit from the Department of Humanities and Social sciences, IIT Bombay. Her research interests include Saṃskrit grammatical tradition, Indian philosophy of language and lexicography. (She can be reached at chaitali@iitk.ac.in.)
