The institute organised a special discussion on Narada Shilpa Shastra, an important text of Vastushastra, civil engineering, and architecture, on January 16. This 1,500-year-old treatise was recently edited and translated by Prof R N Iyengar, who visited IITGN for lectures in its annual Indian Knowledge Systems course.
His new work, Narada Shilpa Shastra, published by Jain University Press, is a treatise extensively dealing with town-planning, construction of roads, dams, lakes, private and public buildings, including marriage halls, art galleries, theatres and temples. The discussion at IITGN had faculty members and students exchanging with Prof Iyengar on the modern relevance, implications and possible applications of this ancient treatise to current challenges in town-planning, construction, water management and other aspects of civil engineering.
Prof Iyengar also delivered lectures on Civil Engineering in Ancient India as part of the third edition of the Indian Knowledge Systems semester course, being conducted on the theme of Technologies in Ancient India.
Professor Iyengar's Profile
Prof Iyengar had a distinguished academic career as a civil engineering expert. He has been the director of CBRI-CSIR, a professor at Indian Institute of Science in the past, and is currently Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Centre for Ancient History and Culture at Jain University, Bengaluru. He has received numerous awards and accolades. He is an acclaimed Sanskrit scholar and has researched and written extensively on ancient Indian astronomy, natural sciences and civil engineering. In 2013, he brought out the Parasharatantra, an ancient Sanskrit treatise on astronomy and natural sciences, with text, translation and notes.
