Indian

Knowledge
Systems
Past, Present & Future

A Calendar for the year 2021

by

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Saptarishi
The Seven Sages of India

The Seven Sages are namely Brahmarishis Kasyapa, Jamadagni, Gautama,

Bharadvaja, Visvamitra, Vasishtha and Atri, who are the Saptarishis of the
present Cycle of Creative flux, known as the Vaivasvata Manvantara.

The Saptarsis or the seven Sages represent a primordial cosmic consortium of ancient Vedic India. They
are the forerunners of all Indian Knowledge systems. To name a few, the genesis of
w Cosmology, astral and positional astronomy (Jyotir tatha Mahajagatik Vidya) was forwarded by the
lineage of Maharshi Bhrigu, and Maharshi Vasistha-Sakti-Parashar. It is also the foundation of
mathematics (bijaganita) and geometry (jyamatra) that originated in ancient India;
w Health Sciences (Ayurveda) goes to Maharshi Bharadwaj;
w Earth, terrestrial and built-environmental sciences (Vasu and Vaastu Vidya) belong to Maharshi
Vasistha and other associated Sages.

January 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

31 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26
Republic Day
27 28 29 30

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Sanskrit
Sanskrit for
Natural Language Processing

“ India was the motherland of our race,

and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's
languages: she was the mother of our
philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of
much of our mathematics; mother,
through the Buddha, of the ideals
embodied in Christianity; mother, through
the village community, of self-government
and democracy. Mother India is in many
ways the mother of us all.”

– Will Durant
World Historian

Sanskrit means ‘The most perfected and cultured’ among languages. It is the root of the entire Indo-
Aryan branch in Asia and systems of European languages. The ten mandalas of the oldest literature of
the world, the Rig Veda, is the basis of 10th or dasam, the unit of decimal system of the world. To name a
few only, words (Sabda or Soft) and their embedded ideas (Artha or Worth / Hard) like takkhana (to
design and sculpture), jara (old age), asthi (bones), dhatri (child caretaker), kalasa (class taxonomy) are
the bases of later knowledge systems namely ‘Technology’, ‘Geriatrics’, ‘Osteopathy’, ‘Paediatrics’
and ‘Ecclesia’, respectively.

February 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16
Basant Panchami
17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Bijaganita
and Jyamiti
Mathematics and Geometry

“ We owe a lot to the

Indians, who taught
us how to count,
without which no
worthwhile scientific
discovery could have
been made.”
– Albert Einstein
Nobel Laureate & Physicist

The legacy of Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara II, and Varahamihira of Medieval India can be
traced back to older sutras, like the Baudhyana, Manava, Apastamba and Katyana sutras (800 – 600
BCE) and the Sulbasutras. The sutras forward the details of construction of sacrificial altars (Yupa or
Chaitya) based on astral coordinates in the form of jaw-shaped orbs/arcs/chords (jya) footprints.
Their origin dates back to the Taittiriya branch of the Krishna Yajurveda School. The binary units of
Indian numeric sciences, i.e., Sunya (cipher or zero) and Adwaita (unity or one) are the twin basis of
computational sciences today.

March 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29Holi
30 31

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Arthashastra
Economics

“ India is the cradle of the human race,

the birthplace of human speech, the
mother of history, the grandmother of
legend, and the great grand mother of
tradition. Our most valuable and most
constructive materials in the history of
man are treasured up in India only.”

– Mark Twain
American Humorist & Writer

Kautilya (300 BCE) is often identified as Vishnugupta and Chanakya, who is traditionally credited as the author
of Arthashastras. But the more ancient source of economic and cultural treatise of community planning,
agricultural produce, mineralogy, mining and metals, animal husbandry, medicine, forests and wildlife can be
traced back to Manusmriti, which is an older text belonging to the branch of Dharmashastra that is further
based on an older discourse between Manu (Svayambhuva) and Maharshi Bhrigu. In the discourse, dharma
(Dhamma or Domus) and related artha (worth) domains of environmental and community duties, rights, laws,
conduct, and virtues are the stepping stone to higher spiritual goals (param-artha). The Hierarchy of Needs by
Abraham Maslow today essentially represents that ancient construct of human evolution.

April 2021
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1 2
Good Friday
3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25
Mahavir Jayanti
26 27 28 29 30

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Rasayana
Chemical Sciences

“ Many of the advances in the

sciences that we consider today
to have been made in Europe
were in fact made in India
centuries ago.”

– James Grant Duff

Scottish Soldier & Historian

In Indian metaphysics, Yoga means to transcend creation and ‘Yoke’ to unity (Gyana-shakti), and Kshem
(Chem) means to sustain the diversity of creation (Krea-shakti). The two are polarized (samavartana) and they
jointly represent the levitating and gravitating systems of human thought. Both are important, as it is said,
yoga-kshemam vahamyaham (Gita, 9.22). Kshem represents an inner path (ayana) of arriving at the
essence (rasa) of life by trans-mutating material or mercurial values (Dhatugarbha) to spiritual or golden
values (Hiranyagarbha). The works of Acharya Nagarjunacharya and Acharya Nityanadhiya can be traced
to such older texts, and they are revalidated recently by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, who is the author of ‘A
History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of Sixteenth Century’ (1902).

May 2021
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30 31 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14Id-ul-Fitr*
15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26
Buddha Purnima
27 28 29

*Deepending on the appearance of the Moon

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Ayurveda
Biological Sciences

“ Indian surgery remained

ahead of European until the
18th Century, when the
surgeons of the East India
Company were not ashamed
to learn the art of rhinoplasty
from the Indians.”

– A. L. Basham
The Wonder That Was India, 1971

Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and other schools (100 BCE) of Indian health sciences can be traced
back to an ancient lineage of Dhanvantari, a forerunning Acharya in Varanasi and a proponent of the
school of Bhargavi-samhita, the Bhargavi-Atharvaveda and the Atreya Samhita. The eight components of
Kayachikitsa (medicine), Kaumara-bhrtya (pediatrics), salyatantra (surgical techniques), shalakyatantra
(ENT), Bhutavidya (material pathology), Agadatantra (toxicology), Rasayantantra (rejuvenation), and
Vajikaranatantra (aphrodisiac treatments) represent the later ramification, continuous up to the primary
health concerns of contemporary times.

June 2021
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1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Jyotir tatha
Mahajagatik
Vidya
Astral and Cosmological Sciences

“ I am convinced that everything has come

down to us from the banks of the Ganga,
astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc. It
does not behoove us, who were only savages
and barbarians when these Indians and
Chinese peoples were civilized and learned.”

– Voltaire
French Enlightenment Writer & Reformer

A thousand years prior to ancient Greeks and Babylonians (3000 BCE), and of course, much prior to
Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus and Tycho Brahe (1400 – 1500 AD), Indian cosmology and positional
astronomy were fully aware of the geocentric, heliocentric and galactic patterns of the universe based on
relationship between matter and energy, non-linearity (Kalpa and Yuga as cycles within time), and its effects
on living entities. Gravitation between the macrocosm (Brahmanda) and the microcosm (pinda) has been
the basis of the Law of Causation. Positional and fixed astronomy (sayana and nirayana) of heavenly
bodies soon became the decisive foundation of the six wings (Anga) of Vedas, called the Vedangas.

July 2021
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1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21
Id-ul-Zuha (Bakrid)**
22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

**Deepending on the appearance of the Moon

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Prakriti Vidya
Ecological and
Environmental Sciences

“ If there is one place on the face of this

Earth where all the dreams of living men
have found a home from the very earliest
days when man began the dream of
existence, it is India.”

– Romain Rolland
Nobel Laureate & French Philosopher

A holistic art of living combining the natural and the artificial is increasingly becoming significant today.
The symbiosis of life with nature, her heterogeneity, her natural relationships, formulate life cycles of growth
and evolution. Modern sciences call it ‘Deep Ecology’ or ‘Biocentrism’. Indian Ecological and
Environmental sciences is increasingly revisited today as reductionism in science and subject to a
paradigm shift in patterns of production and consumption, and a replacement of ‘competition’ by
‘cooperation’. Lessons from India’s green Aranyak settlements (forest hermitages) have fostered a vision of
sustainable development. The Brundtland Commission of the United Nations (1983), the Kyoto Protocol
(1991), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UNFCCC's Paris Agreement (2015)
represent the shift, which are to name a few only.

August 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15
Independence
16 17 18 19
Muharram
20 21
Day

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Nandan Tatya and
Vaastu Vidya
Aesthetics and
Architectural Sciences

“ It is already becoming clearer that

a chapter which has a western
beginning will have to have an
Indian ending if it is not to end in the
self-destruction of the human race...
At this supremely dangerous moment
in history, the only way of salvation
for mankind is the Indian way.”

– Dr. Arnold J. Toynbee

British Historian

Indian Shilpa Shastras is always a holistic system of arts and crafts forwarding human-centric design
principles that regard biocentrism and cosmology. One specific branch is Vaastu Shastras that deals with
small building architecture to large scale country and town planning. Tracing from the 7th Mandala of the Rig
Veda, it is further evident in the Mamuni Mayan texts of Tamil Sangam literature. From Varahamihira's Brihat
Samhita to designs of medieval Jaipur City; the contemporary Jawahar Kala Kendra, and layout of the city of
Auroville, the ancient traditions are carried down to the contemporary cosmogonic and anthropocentric
designs. Similar examples are Arkosanti in Arizona and Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.

September 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Nyaya Shastra
Systems of Social and
Ecological Ethics, Logic and Law

“ Whatever sphere of the human mind you may

select for your special study, whether it be
language, or religion, or mythology, or
philosophy, whether it be laws or customs,
primitive art or primitive science, everywhere,
you have to go to India, whether you like it or
not, because some of the most valuable and
most instructive materials in the history of man
are treasured up in India, and in India only.”

– Max Müller
German Philologist & Orientalist

Nyaya is one of the profound schools of Indian philosophy bearing a systematic development of the
theory of logic, methodology, and epistemology. The Law of Causation, which is embedded in the ‘Hymn
of Creation’, 10th mandala of the Rig Veda, is the foundation of principles of individual working ethics,
collective welfare and universal knowledge systems. The sequential phases of human pursuit, based on
artha (means of life), kama (pleasure), dharma (right conduct), and eventually, moksa (liberation)
represent the most profound system of hierarchical human evolution. Even desire or pleasure is related to
liberation where individual Kama expands to collective altruism and philanthropy, which is Prema.

October 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

31 1 2
Mahatma Gandhi’s
Birthday

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12
Dussehra
13
Dussehra
14
Dussehra
15Dussehra
16
(Maha Saptami) (Maha Ashtami) (Maha Navami) (Vijaya Dashami)
Additional Additional Additional

17 18 19
Prophet Mohammad’s
20 21 22 23
Birthday (Id-e-Milad)

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Shilpa tatha
Natya Shastra
Classical Arts

“ The ancient artist had deep

feeling of being himself an
integrated part of the cosmos and
participating in all its categories
and elements, a feeling acquired
by innumerable generations in
uncounted centuries of meditative
experience.”

– Alice Boner
Swiss Art Historian

The Natya Sastra, a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts is often attributed to sage Bharata Muni (500
BCE). But its aesthetic foundation, the ‘Rasa theory’, is the quintessence of all performing and fine arts.
Here the performer experiences the expansion of his or her own consciousness (Chid) as an all-pervading
and creative cosmic bliss (Vilasa). A certain work named Abhinavabharati by Abhinavagupta of Kashmir
can be traced back to the Agni Purana, the Kalpasutras of the Vedanga, and even to Rishi Agastya (Rig Veda
I.187.4). The entire tradition of Indian musical instruments, songs, dance and lyrics revolve around the orb
of Rasa theory. For instance, the iconography of Nataraj, a cosmic imagery of Vedic Purusha or Puranic
Shiva, is derived from the Tandava / Tandya school of the Sama Veda, i.e., the Chandogya Upanishad.

November 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4
Diwali (Deepavali)
5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19
Guru Nanak’s
20
Birthday

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 Sapta Rishi
of
Modern Indian Science

Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy

Indian Chemistry Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Acharya Srinivasa Ramanujan Acharya Satyendra Nath Bose
Indian Concept of Life Sciences Indian Mathematics Indian Concept of Physics

Acharya Asima Chatterjee Acharya E K Janaki Ammal Acharya Irawati Karve

Indian Organic Chemistry Indian Botanist & Plant Cytologist
Indian Sociology & Anthropology

Today, India’s intellectual, scientific and artistic knowledge traditions are an inseparable whole through which
the lineage of classical thoughts, traditions and practices of Indian civilization has become more relevant in
the contemporary humanity. From the archaic tradition of Saptarshis of times of remote antiquity to an era of
modern Indian scientific mind, it is indeed a long historic legacy, which needs to be unlocked, deciphered and
recognized. The key to this unlocking can be best attained through a patient revival of respect for green ethos,
and a neutral scientific temper that is truly experimental and iterative. The future youth forces of India need to
regain this temper, the very skill, or what is called Kaushalam. Hence, the motto ‘Yogah karmasu kaushalam’
(Gita). It stands for the real beginning of a full revival of Indian knowledge systems.

December 2021
SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Christmas Day

26 27 28 29 30 31

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KHARAGPUR
 A Calendar dedicated to
Centre of Excellence for
Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS)
Shiksha Mantri Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced the Centre of Excellence for
Indian Knowledge Systems to be set up at IIT Kharagpur. Inaugurating the international
webinar titled “Bharata Tirtha” organized by the Institute from November 6-8, 2020, Chief
Guest Dr. Nishank congratulated the Institute for the continued work in various branches of
the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). Director Prof. Virendra K Tewari, Director, IIT
Kharagpur, expressed the need to acknowledge and incentivize research work on Indian
Scientific Heritage through prestigious awards like Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize. The
Centre will create a comprehensive knowledge base by involving top international experts
from the best universities and institutes of India and the world, who are pioneers in IKS in ten
key domains to start with. The ten domains are highlighted in the present Calendar of Year
2021. Nehru Museum of Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur has the immense pleasure
to forward the same, the Centre will mainly focus on:
} Collation and aggregation of a constructive data base of works already done by experts
within India and around the world
} Promotion of a digital archive of selected texts of IKS for all future research activities
} Induction of an advanced scientific methods of exploration and investigation – GPR
based exploration; Laser induced breakdown spectroscopies and Photo-luminescence
dating; Paleo radiology, CT computer tomography and micro-CT scans and Kirlian
imagery; Paleo-botany and advanced geo-hydrological exploration studies; Decoding
NLP and allied methods of language sciences using Sanskrit based on HMI and Natural
language Processing algorithms; Advanced satellite imagery studies in landscape
exploration; Image processing and advance visual software driven decoding of
Iconographic exploration (semantics and semiotics); Exploration of advanced electrical
sciences in health, healing, therapeutic and noetic techniques; and many more.
The Centre will promote all-round pursuit of research, development and application of
Indian Knowledge System (IKS) based on:
} Proper methodological construct of recovery
} A recovery of interconnectedness of Cosmological, Ecological and Material Sciences of
IKS and the modern sciences. It is now time to recover these interconnections and
delineate ways and means garnering the application in the contemporary societal
framework. Thus a recovery of the ancient Indian way in our contemporary framework is
the need of the hour. It will promote:
§ A holistic framework of education based on integration of the Indian value systems
and deep ecosystem approach, and the modern sciences
§ A science of holistic living and livelihood integrated with principles of green
production, consumption, and near equitable distribution.

NEHRU MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
2021

CHIEF PATRON
Prof. Virendra K. Tewari, Director IIT Kharagpur

PATRON
Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharya Sri Tamal Nath
Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur Registrar (Officiating), IIT Kharagpur

ADVISORY TEAM
Prof. V. R. Desai Prof. Somesh Kumar Prof. Ajay Singh
Professor of Civil Engineering and Dean Professor of Mathematics Professor of Physics and President
Faculty of Engineering and Architecture and Dean Students Affairs Technology Students Gymkhana

Prof. Dhrubajyoti Sen Prof. Arnab Roy Dr. Abhijit Mukherjee

Professor of Civil Engineering Professor of Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor
and Former Chairman, NMST Geology and Geophysics

Dr. Arkopal Kishore Goswami Dr. Anuradha Choudry Dr. Arjun Mukherjee
Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor Assistant Professor
RCGSIDM Humanities and Social Sciences Architecture and Regional planning

Prof. Joy Sen

Professor, Architecture and Regional Planning and
Chairman, Nehru Museum of Science and Technology

SUPPORT SYSTEM AND LAYOUT DESIGN

Dr. Arnab Kumar Hazra

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