Varanasi: The Center for Vedic Science, Banaras Hindu University is going to organize a two-day workshop on ‘Vedic jurisprudence and its impact on contemporary world’ on February 22 and 23. Scholars, thinkers and jurists from across the country and abroad will deliver lectures on this topic.
According to Dr. Upendra Kumar Tripathi, coordinator Center for Vedic Sciences, the purpose of organizing this workshop is the scientific study and research of the knowledge embedded in entire Vedic Literature. This workshop is first of its kind in the country offering a unique experience of congress of Vedic Science and Law, he added.
He said that Vedas are the oldest and most authentic repository of knowledge available. The vast Vedic literature forms the principle source of Indian tradition, spirituality, law, trade and management. This knowledge is further enriched through Shruti and Smriti. Traditionally Sanskrit word for law is Dharma. It can be used as such for ordinance, usage, duty, right, justice, virtue, religion and good work. In ancient India along with other subjects there was a tremendous research and development in the field of law. Although Indian culture has a long and glorified intellectual tradition, but the education system prevalent in India fails to impress, encourage and provide the needed clarity to Indians to know about their roots, traditions, culture and sciences. The academic courses in India taught us about Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Bentham, Austin, Dworkin, H. L. A. Hart and Rawls etc. but nothing about Manu, Narada, Yajnavalkya, Parashara, Patanjali, Veda Vyasa, Baudhayana, Kanada, Aryabhata, Bhaskara, Varahamihira, Brahmagupta, Chanakya and many others. Western philosophers are associated with Apara vidya but life is not only material per se. Human life is originally spiritual one therefore the synthesis of Para and Apara vidya requires to be developed, for the betterment of the humanity. Neo-academic literature on this glorious Indian intellectual tradition is also missing because academic texts in Indian education system in vogue mostly are Eurocentric. Several historians have recognized these omissions of scientific contribution of non-western cultures in various academic fields.
Organizing secretary, Dr. Anoop Kumar said that that presently modern western jurisprudence is undergoing in a deep crisis. Despite creating a host of schools and theories, it seems to have exhausted the possibility of any further development and is lying stagnant. However, solutions to vital problems have remained elusive. Keeping in view the above problems and issues related to Vedic conception of law and its potential use in modern jurisprudence, the Centre for Vedic Science has decided to organise this workshop. The true focus of the workshop would be to establish the intellectual wealth of the preceding generations, which has given a very balanced comprehensive and fruitful solutions to each and every problem.
He informed that there would be nine sessions for which 230 students have been pre-registered. The workshop would be attended by the participants from more than 10 states including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, entire Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttarakhand. The students and teachers from several universities including Delhi University, Allahabad University, Punjab University, Patna University, Lucknow University, Gujarat Central University, Deendayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, PSIT College of Law, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University of Social Science, Madhya Pradesh Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law Students of University, Lucknow and National Law University, Mumbai would take part in the workshop.
The inaugural function would be attended by Dr Justice BN Srikrishna, Former Justice, Supreme Court, and Prof Harekrishna Satapathy, Vice-Chancellor, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (Deemed University) Odisha. Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar, vice chancellor of BHU will preside over the inaugural function. The valedictory function will be attended by Justice BS Chauhan, former Justice, Supreme Court and former Chairman Law Commission of India, and Aacharya Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid from Sri Vallabhram Shaligram Sangved Vidyalya.
