Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India:
The Indian Knowledge Systems Division of the Ministry of Education at AICTE, has been organising a series of events called Dhara: An Ode to Indian Knowledge Systems. Dhara is a novel initiative of the IKS division of the Ministry of Education at AICTE, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, GoI, as part of Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. It seeks to promote indigenous knowledge traditions of this country through an assemblage of domain specialists discussing policy suggestions for drafting Vision documents 2047 for selected IKS topics. Till date, Dhara has conducted events on the themes of Indian mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics, NEP2020, Ayurveda, martial arts and maritime traditions. traditions, sangita and natya traditions.
The next Dhara on Bhāratīya Rasāyanaśāstra, to be held on February 13 and 14, 2023, at the IKS Center of IIT(BHU) Varanasi will focus on the rich heritage of chemistry and material science in India.
The objectives of this 2-day event are to formulate a Vision Document for 2047 with the help of leading stakeholders and practitioners to create awareness of our rich performing traditions, the knowledge systems that nourish them and to take the knowledge of the texts to the people through different media.
The Dhara event on Bhāratīya Rasāyanaśāstra is being organised by the IKS Center at IIT(BHU) Varanasi with the help of IKS Division, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Culture, to be held on 13th – 14th February, 2023, at IIT(BHU) Varanasi. The conference will involve the drafting of a vision document for Bhāratīya Rasāyanaśāstra 2047 and cultural activities to popularize this knowledge from ancient to modern times.
The inaugural ceremony of this 2-day event will take place on Feb 13 at 10.00 am in Gopal Tripathi Auditorum of IIT(BHU). The gathering will be welcomed by Dr. V. Ramanathan, Principal Investigator of the IKS Center at IIT(BHU) Varanasi. Prof. G.S. Murthy, the National Coordinator of IKS Cell, MiE will talk about the Dhara initiatives andother activities of the IKS Cell. Padma Sri Prof. Manoranjan Sahu, the renowned Ayurvedic surgeon will be the chief guest and he will share his wisdom whereafter Prof. Vibha Tripathi, former Professor at BHU would deliver the keynote address surveying the highlights of the 6 sessions planned for the 2-day national converence. Prof. Pramod Kumar Jain, Director IIT(BHU) Varanasi will deliver the presidential address and the inaugural ceremony would draw to a close with a vote of thanks by Dr. V. Ramanathan.
The individual sessions would commence at the ABLT complex. Following key contributions of Indian Chemistry will be covered in this conference:
1) Extensive use of plant based acids and bases
2) Combinatorics: formula to calculate nCr while dealing with the art of mixing perfumes
3) Cosmetics for body beautification: Various types of masks or applications adjusted to different seasons
4) The art and procedure to blacken grey hair in an organic manner
5) The art and science of using organic colours on various media
6) The science and procedure to make various types of adamantine glue
7) Rendering the colours on fabric long-lasting by the use of ‘green’ mordants and binders
8) Making metal nanoparticles and making them biocompatible
9) The science and technology of making rustless iron artefacts
10) The science and technology of refining pure zinc and making high zinc brass
The above themes will be covered through lectures, panel discussion, hands-on demonstration and exhibition through the following 6 sessions:
The first session will be on Medicinal Chemistry where the resource persons are Dr. R. Geetha Sudheer MD, PhD., a Siddha Practioner from Thirunelveli Tamil Nadu, Dr. G. Meera, Manager IMCOPS, Chennai Tamil Nadu and Prof. D. N. S. Gautam BHU.
This session will be followed by the session on Perfumery where Vaidya Jayant Deipujari, Chairman NCISM, GoI will take us through the journey of the chemistry and history of perfumes in our country followed by some demonstration by Smt. Veena Agnihotri whose family is associated with the Kannauj itr manufacturers for several generations.
Colour being an inseparable part of life, celebration of chemistry without colours is unimaginable. Session of colours is divided into 4 parts namely colours on skin, colours on metals, colours on fabric and colours on paper. These will be handled in two diferent sessions. For colours on skin, Kathakali artists from Kerala will be demonstrating and talking about how colours have been used in their tradition. Other aspects of colours will be demonstrated by Dr. Jasminder Kaur (BHU), Sri Gaurav KEsarvani (BHU), Dr. Sreekuttan (Kerala) and Dr. Sunil Vishwakarma (MGKVP, Varanasi).
There has been tremendous success in the field of chemistry and material science particularly in construction materials where huge temples and buildings were constructed using ingeneous glue and other such materials. A session exclusively on construction material will be discussing these aspects. Dr. Manoj Gundanna from Mysore and Dr. Suresh from Kerala will be in a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Ramanathan.
Finally, the session on the philosophical aspects of Indian chemistry will be discussed in a panel comprising of Prof. Hare Ram Tripathi, VC of Sampurnananda University and Dr. Neelam Gupta.
This Dhara would be a curtain raiser for the next Dhara to be held on Indian metallurgy at IIT Indore.
Srijan Chatterjee’s dance drama group from Kolkata will perform on the theme “Kashi ki galiyon se ghat tak” in the evening of Day 1 and Dr. Mannu Yadav will sing folk songs related to Holi on the evening of Day 2.
–Press release; Source–PRO IIT-BHU
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