Two Research scholars at the Department of Sanskrit Studies, Mr. Sayantan Lahiri and Mr. Subhashis De presented posters in the 3-day National Youth Conference on Indian Knowledge Systems (NYCIKS) held at IIT Roorkee between 25-27th August, 2023.
The youth conference, the first of its kind on IKS was organised as part of the G20 University connect programme in association with the IKS Division, Ministry of Education, Government of India with multiple partner institutions including the Central Sanskrit University, New Delhi and Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy, to name a few.
Mr. Sayantan Lahiri, who is an Institute of Eminence (IoE) funded Research Intern at the department, presented the preliminary results of their IoE Project in the poster titled “Modeling Indian Research Methodology: Approaches and Implications” which aimed to formulate the notion of Indian Research Methodology (IRM) from Ayurvedic Samhita texts and tried to apply the theoretical framework in doctoral thesis writing in order to make it more comprehensive and robust. The poster is part of the IoE project “Indian Research Methodology from Sanskrit Texts: Multidisciplinary Approaches in Higher Education Spaces” supervised by Prof. JSR Prasad, Head, Department of Sanskrit Studies and co-supervised by Dr. Shree Deepa, Associate Professor, Centre for English Language Studies.
Mr. Subhasish De is a Research Scholar at the Department of Sanskrit Studies, working on ‘Personality Psychology in Indian perspective’ based on the tenets of Ayurveda, under the supervision of Prof. JSR Prasad, Head, Department of Sanskrit Studies. The poster titled “Role of Prajñāparādha in Mānasa Prakṛtis: Identifying Vulnerability in Personalities causing Mental Disorders” is part of his doctoral Research works. This paper explored which Personality Type (Mānasa Prakṛti) is more prone to indulge in intellectual error (prajñāparādha). Prajñāparādha (committing crime against wisdom) is one of the three primordial causes of any disease according to Ayurveda.
The conference hosted more than 300 scholars across India and abroad to forge interdisciplinary dialogues celebrating the ancient Indian knowledge systems. Keynote speeches were delivered by Prof. Michel Danino, IIT Gandhinagar and Prof. K. Ramasubramanian of IIT Bombay who stressed upon shaking off any inferiority complex Indians might face because of the imposed foreign, Western culture and beginning to celebrate the rich tradition of which they are proud inheritors.
Both the posters were cordially appreciated by the academic community present there and an engrossing discussion took place following the presentations, as the eminent scholars and participants showed their interest in research collaborations as it may contribute in decolonizing the way research is envisioned and practiced in India at present.
The presenters would like to thank their supervisors and IoE for providing travel grants which made their participation in the conference possible.
—Contributed by Sayantan Lahiri, IoE Research Intern, University of Hyderabad.