Varanasi, Jan 20 (PTI) The Banaras Hindu University has started a postgraduate programme in 'Hindu Dharma' and according to the varsity, the course is the first of its kind in the country.
Professor V K Shukla, who is the varsity's rector, said that this programme will help in making the world aware of many unknown aspects of 'Hindu Dharma' and take its teachings to more and more people.
He said that this would be the first such course in the country.
The course will be conducted in collaboration with the departments of philosophy and religion, Sanskrit and ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology of the faculty of arts of the 'Bharat Adhyayan Kendra'.
Forty-five students, including a foreign student, have taken admission in the first session of the course, Shukla said after inaugurating the postgraduate programme on Tuesday.
Sadashiv Kumar Divedi, the coordinator of the 'Bharat Adhyayan Kendra', said that this two-year course will have four semesters and 16 papers.
Director of the Varanasi Center of the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts Vijay Shankar Shukla said that the idea of starting such a course was first given by scholars Pandit Ganganath Jha and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.
But due to some reasons this course could not be started at that time, he said.
