Indian Knowledge Systems
Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) is the comprehensive body of knowledge produced by Hindu civilization across millennia — spanning philosophy, mathematics, medicine, linguistics, aesthetics, ecology, and political theory — unified not by a single methodology but by a shared Dhārmika ontology. Unlike the Western division of knowledge into separate disciplines, IKS traditions were typically integrative: the Nāṭyaśāstra theorizes performance, aesthetics, ethics, and cosmology as a single field; an Āyurvedic text on medicine is simultaneously a text on ethics and ontology. The colonial encounter systematically devalued this corpus, reclassifying it as religion or superstition while extracting its practical knowledge — mathematics, metallurgy, textile production — without acknowledging its sources. Bodha’s work across schools of thought, thinker studies, and research projects collectively works toward the recovery, articulation, and application of IKS in contemporary contexts: not as museum pieces but as living intellectual resources.
Wiki Pages
- [[sanatana-dharma-and-metaphysics]] — Sanatana Dharma and Metaphysics
- [[civilizational-consciousness]] — Civilizational Consciousness
- [[decolonization]] — Decolonization
- [[language-and-art]] — Language and Art
- [[schools-of-thought]] — Schools of Thought
- [[institutional-design-research]] — Institutional Design Research
- [[purva-paksha-research]] — Purva Paksha Research
Source Files
Big Questions
Schools of Thought
- School of Conscilience
- School of Cultural Traditionalists
- Dharampal School of Svayambodha
- School of Narrative Non-fiction
- School of Political Traditionalists
- Swami Vivekananda’s School
Research Projects
Thinkers
Blog Articles
- Art and Meaning Making
- Chaṭh - a Living Tradition and Cultural Homecoming
- Decolonization - A Personal Footprint and Some Ramp Ways
- Decolonizing Language
- Caturasūtra - Four Aphorisms
- Fractal Maṇḍala 1 — the Macrohistoric Case for India’s Civilizational Primacy
- Fractal Maṇḍala 2 — the Macrohistoric Case for India’s Civilizational Primacy
- Grand History, Part 1
- History is Ontic but Itihāsa is Ontologic
- Indian Civilizational Consciousness
- Indic Environmentalism - A Balance between Tradition and Innovation
- Quest for Harmony
- Sanskṛta vs. FATE Languages
- Preliminary Schema for Synaptic Reconnection to Civilizational Consciousness - Part 1
- Preliminary Schema for Synaptic Reconnection to Civilizational Consciousness - Part 2
Blog Articles (External)
- Continuous, Comprehensive and Cumulative - The Knowledge Tradition of India
- Did Brahmins Monopolize Knowledge in Ancient India?
- Dukh, Depression and Journeys of Life - Depression is the Absence of Dukkha - Part I
- Hindu View of the Simulation Hypothesis
- How Old is the Hindu Temple?
- The Many Meanings of the Hindu Temple
- On What is a Hindu Temple
- Puranas as the Source for a Chronology of Indian History
- Teaching and Research - The Rot That Has Set In
Associated Books
- Introduction to IKS (Kapil Kapoor)
introduction-to-iks— Survey introduction to Indian Knowledge Systems and their major domains, methods, and categories. - On the Nature of Mathematics and Scientific Knowledge in Indian Tradition (MD Srinivas)
on-the-nature-of-mathematics-and-scientific-knowledge-in-indian-tradition— Study of how Indian traditions theorized mathematics, knowledge, and scientific reasoning. - Historical Methods (Shonaleeka Kaul)
historical-methods— Discussion of historical method with relevance to Sanskrit and Indian civilizational sources. - Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century (Dharampal)
indian-science-and-technology-in-the-18th-century— Documentary study of scientific and technical practices in early modern India. - 64 Arts in Ancient India (Anil Baran Ganguly)
64-arts-in-ancient-india— Survey of the classical list of sixty-four arts and what it reveals about education and cultured accomplishment. - The Kalās (A Venkatasubbiah)
the-kalas— Work on Indian Knowledge Systems, bringing traditional categories into conversation with practice, theory, or pedagogy. - The Beautiful Tree (Dharampal)
the-beautiful-tree— Historical argument about indigenous education in India before colonial disruption. - Art Experience (M Hiriyanna)
art-experience— Reflection on art, meaning, symbolism, and the experience of beauty in Indian thought. - On Natyashastra (Bharat Gupt)
on-natyashastra— Introductory or interpretive study of the Natyashastra and its framework for drama, performance, and rasa.
Related Concepts
- Decolonization — Recovering IKS is the substantive, constructive dimension of decolonization
- Sanskrit — Sanskrit is the primary carrier language of Indian knowledge systems
- Purva Paksha — Understanding Western knowledge systems requires purva paksha before IKS can be properly evaluated