IIT Kharagpur's calendar on Indian Knowledge System is on sale online

If you want to know how India was once the cradle of science and mathematics and feel proud of the country’s scientific heritage throughout the year, then here is your chance. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has come up with a calendar for the year 2021 that is unique in many ways, and proudly showcases Indian Knowledge System right from the Vedic era.

As is the practice, IITs have been distributing their calendars for free. But the 2021 calendar made by IIT Kharagpur is chargeable. This is the first time for any IIT to sell calendars.

The institute through its event management agency has put up both its wall calendar and desktop calendar for sale on Amazon from the evening of January 15. Both the calendars are priced at Rs 250.

Within 12-hours of going up online, 500 calendars have been sold. The institute has also received orders from various ministries, income tax department, embassy’s, foreign universities, police stations, Kendriya Vidyalaya Network and several other schools, colleges and universities. Orders have been pouring in from various alumni associations too. The alumni association of IIT Kharagpur in the US has ordered for 1000 calendars.

The institute has decided to use the proceeds from the sales for providing educational support to needy students on campus.

So, why is the calendar selling like hot cake? Joy Sen, professor of Architecture and regional Planning and chairman of National Museum of Science and Technology (NMST) at IIT Kharagpur, who is behind the concept and research for the calendar explains, “This calendar has induced the new generation with a feeling of being nationally confident. We all know that the West has a lot to offer, but the Indian knowledge system has been the base of several subjects for which the world is thankful to India. This calendar celebrates that fact.”

The calendar according to Sen is a glimpse of knowledge he gathered through his 40 years of research on the Indian Knowledge System. “This calendar celebrates how India taught arts, science, ecology, architecture, technology, mathematics, chemistry, philosophy, economics and several other things to the world. While Sanskrit is the mother of all languages we have made the initial strides in health sciences. This calendar would motivate every Indian and feel proud of our heritage,” he said. 

As you turn the pages of this calendar every month will give you the reason to feel proud. January for example depicts how the Saptarisis or the seven sages who represented a primordial cosmic consortium of ancient Vedic India delved into cosmology, health science or Ayurveda and Vasu and Vaastu Vidya or Earth, terrestrial and built-environmental sciences.

It celebrates India being the mother of all civilisations in many ways, and depicts how economics, chemistry, astral and cosmic science, ecological and environmental sciences, philosophy, Buddhism, the ideals of Christianity and even the languages spoken throughout Europe owes its origin to India.

As you turn to the month of March, a quote from Albert Einstein, Nobel Laureate and physicist, on India’s contribution to Geometry and Mathematics, is bound to make you swell with pride. "We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made," says Einstein.

As you progress through 2021, keep flipping the pages and learn more about your India.