IIT Kharagpur, the oldest of all IITs, is going to introduce Vastu Shastra as a subject from the next academic session. “A renewed interest in ancient Indian knowledge” is being cited as a reason for introducing the subject which deals with traditional Indian architecture.
Vastu Shastra was not part of the syllabi of architecture or infrastructure courses until now, but faculty members decided to introduce it while working on re-orienting teaching-learning for the next academic session. According to a report in The Times of India, they felt that apart from western concepts, students should also be familiar with ancient Indian architectural traditions.
The faculty members also feel that Vastu Shastra has scientific roots, TOI added. “Vastu Shastra has its beginnings in Rig Veda and is scientific in its tenor. Today, the whole world is looking at green living, thanks to the way we are suffering due to erratic concretization. The concept of Vastu revolves around the healthy relationship of nature and infrastructure, hence its modern relevance,” Joy Sen, a faculty member of the architecture department of IIT-Kharagpur told ToI.
The premier engineering institute will introduce the elementary concepts of Vastu Shastra to first and second-year undergraduate architecture students in August. It will be taught in graded modules.
Post-graduate students will be given a more detailed insight into the subject. They will be taught concepts like solar principles, sacred diagrams, 9 circuit placements or the nabagraha mandal, sacred altars, and design semiotics and semantics.
“For PG infrastructure course, we will have BTech students from departments of architecture, civil, electrical, mechanical and even management graduates. So, at this level, we will have a greater variety to address,” Sen told the paper.
Students will also be required to write assignments, projects, and tests based on the concepts taught.
The Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management (RCGSIDM) of IIT-Kgp held its first workshop on Vastu Shastra in Kolkata on Sunday. Vastu experts from across the country participated in the workshop, according to the Times of India report.
“Times are changing and across the globe there is a renewed interest in ancient Indian knowledge. So, it is natural that we will tweak our syllabus to include Vastu in architecture and infrastructure classes,” said Sen, who also heads RCGSIDM.