Banaras Hindu University (BHU) started an MA course on Hindu Studies from this academic year. This is India’s first such course and it is being conducted at BHU’s Bharat Adhyayan Kendra (BAK) in its Faculty of Arts. It will be run by the Philosophy, Sanskrit, Archaeology, and Vedic Veda Vigyan departments, and the Bharat Study Centre.
In January 2021, senior members of the board of studies at BHU had passed the proposal to begin this course after long deliberations. Apart from Indian students, foreign students will also be able to join this course.
Professor Sadashiv Dwivedi, Coordinator at Bharat Adhyayan Kendra BHU, said that the aim of the course was to prepare scholars of ancient Indian wisdom, including philosophy and languages. Students would be able to understand Indian culture and Hinduism from a scientific perspective.
Other central universities will also begin the Hindu Studies course soon. As per BHU Vice-Chancellor VK Shukla, the course is being started because Christian and Islamic countries have various religion-based courses in their countries but India was lacking in the same.
How to apply
Anyone from any discipline arts, science, IT, technology who holds a graduation degree can take admissions to the BHU Hindu Studies MA course of two years. The MA course will comprise 4 semesters and 16 papers out of which 9 are compulsory and 7 are elective. There are 40 seats on the course. The last date to fill the online form on the official website of BHU is September 7 and the entrance exam will be held on October 3.
Main highlights about the courses
The course will include Tatva, religion and liberation, methods of Praman, practices in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Puranas, the tradition of dialogue in ancient India, and understanding western discourse, and Sanskrit language1.
The course will also focus on aspects of Hindu philosophy such as deep analysis of Tatva Meemansa (material analysis), Dharm Karm Meemansa (religion and karma), and Praman Meemansa (proof).
