Ancient knowledge hub gets a new breath of life

“As a first step, the university will launch two short-term courses in Vedic studies this week during Vidyarambham on Friday.

KOCHI: During the era of gurukula system of education, where knowledge was imparted by the teacher to the student orally, there was just one acclaimed university in Kerala, as famed as Nalanda University in Bihar. The Kantaloor Sala in Thiruvananthapuram, which existed before 850 AD, was a centre of excellence in the study of Vedas, Sanskrit and military science. Now, centuries later, the university is being revived by the Kantaloor Sabha.

“As a first step, the university will launch two short-term courses in Vedic studies this week during Vidyarambham on Friday. The varsity will also launch three new departments — Kantaloor Studies, Vedanga Upaveda Studies and Samskrita, Art and Culture,” said P C Muraleemadhavan, director in chief of the university.  According to him, the university will be set up in three phases.

“In the first phase, online courses will be launched. The next two phases will see the varsity authorities working towards developing it as a deemed university and then making it an autonomous one,” he said. “The ancient institution was relaunched by Kantaloor Sabha in 2020. It is a registered public charitable trust started by Vedic scholars, academicians and like-minded people.

The aim is to impart all types of ancient knowledge systems including Vedas, Vedangas, Upavedas, Darshanas, Puranas, Itihihasas, traditional Indian jurisprudence, ancient physical and social sciences, archery and ancient Indian arts without discriminations based on caste, creed or gender. It was a system that existed in the Kantaloor Sala of yore, which was known as the Dakshina Nalanda,” he added.

As a part of reviving the university, Kantaloor Sabha had conducted a series of lecture series on Indian intellectual tradition, Vedic epistemology and exegesis — lecture series and textual workshops on ancient knowledge systems — this year. 

“Many scholars, academicians and research students from around the globe are regularly attending our lectures, workshops and seminars. We have also uploaded all the lectures on the YouTube channel of Kantaloor Sala,” he said.The university aims to become a centre of higher learning for undergraduate and postgraduate studies, research works and publishing.

Vision of Kantaloor Sala

• Maintain the oral tradition of reciting Vedas
• Explore the scientific wisdom in the Vedas
• Pursue higher studies and research in ayurveda, law, philosophy and sociology with sound knowledge of ancient Sanskrit literature in traditional lines
•  Facilitate research with traditional background
•  Revive Sanskrit as a working language
•  Coordinate activities of various Vedic schools
•  Collaborate with other educational and research institutes 
•  Enable digital education for Sanskrit 
•  Provide facilities for residential learning on traditional lines
•  Promote research and publication of rare classics in Sanskrit that are yet to be published
•  Encourage scholars to write an authentic commentary on classical literature and Darshanas in Sanskrit

Promote interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies and research in Sanskrit 

For more details visit kantaloorsala.in