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Manipal – 2^nd Sep’21: The Department of Philosophy (DoP) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) - an Institution of Eminence is all set to launch Master’s in Sanskrit Studies from this academic year onward. 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 current educational scenario delivered by Dr Bibek Debroy, Chair of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), Govt of India, New Delhi. Prof Debroy is a Sanskrit scholar and an Economist. He has translated major literary classics from Sanskrit to English that run over 8000 pages, stated the release issued by the Department.

The address will be a part of the orientation day for its master’s students in European Studies, Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit Studies organised jointly by the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence – Manipal Centre for European Studies (MCES) and the Department of Philosophy (DoP) on Friday, 3 September 2021 at 3 pm with a special inaugural address via Zoom – https://bit.ly/orientation3sep2021. The event is open to all. Subsequently, the students will go through a 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 withthe National Education Policy (NEP), the Departmentaims at transcending the disciplinary boundaries and offers two multidisciplinary programs – MA Indian Philosophy and MA Sanskrit Studiesand 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 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 noted.

The MA Indian Philosophy program involves critical and interdisciplinary engagements with Indian discourses and introduces philosophising 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 variety of philosophical subjects such as ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and linguistics. 

The two-year MA Sanskrit Studies provides an opportunity to acquire proficiency in 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 analysing Sanskrit texts of various genres - epic, poetry, commentary, and exploring the intertextual links between discourses in pre-modern and modern Indian literatures. Both the programs offer a yearly exit option with a PG Diploma, concluded the note.