INSTITUTE FOR ORIENTAL STUDY, THANE
KALAS AND VIDYAS IN INDIAN TRADITION

SATURDAY, 28 DECEMBER, 2002

CORRESPONDANCE:
SHIVSHAKTI, DR. BEDEKAR'S HOSPITAL,NAUPADA, THANE 400602
PHONE: 542 1438, 538 8358
e-mail: vbedekar@vsnl.com
URL: http://www.orientalthane.com

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT: PHASE I / SEMINAR 2001

Kalas and Vidyas in Indian Tradition.

I have great pleasure in announcing Kalas and Vidyas in Indian Tradition as the subject of our forth-coming seminar to be held on Saturday 28 December 2002 at Thane.

The history of Kalas and Vidyas in Indian tradition is as old as the history of human existence in this subcontinent. The subject is very vast and practically embraces every human activity. Indians believed in making this life livable, pleasurable and meaningful. So we find the concept of Vidya in Upanishads as well as in Agriculture, Architecture and Kamashatra, representing respective philosophies. Indian way of life differed distinctly from Western and other Civilizations, this activity always remained respectable and noble in the society unlike others.
Like any other Science we see Vidyas and Kalas classified into various branches. Apart from basic branches we also see variations in subjects to suit respective human activity. No creative science or society can be static or dogmatic. Being a highly evolved science it always accepted desirable changes to suit time and knowledge acquired by experience.

Kala(art) and Vidya(science) are differentiated on the basis that kala can be understood and practiced even by illiterate person, whereas to understand any Vidya one must be literate. To prepare an image of any metal or metallic alloy is an art as one can make it from oral instructions given by another artist. But to understand the subject of metallurgy one must be literate.

There are said to be basic sixty-four Kalas and thirty-two Vidyas. But as stated earlier these are not same always but change depending on the topic one is dealing with. The sixty-four Kalas given in the Kamashastra of Vatsyayana and Shringar Prakash of Bhoja are completely different from those given in Bhrugu Samhita, an architectural text. The Kalas given by Vatsyayana deal with the subject of Kamashastra whereas those given by Bhrugu pertain to the Shilpashastra.

Bhrugu has given a list of thirty-two Vidyas and corresponding Kalas of each Vidya, totaling sixty-four and stated that these sixty-four Kalas and thirty-two Vidyas formulate a technology called Shilpashastra. Bhrugu maintains ten branches of sciences of Shilpashastra ranging from agriculture to town planning. There are in total thirty-two Vidyas corresponding to different Sciences in Bhrugu Samhita. These Vidyas are further divided into sixty-four Kalas.

There is every likelihood that such lists of sixty-four Kalas and thirty-two Vidyas might have been prepared for other shastra like Medicine, Dietetics and others. One has to find them in Sanskrit and Prakrit literature.
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A look at the list of sixty-four Kalas given in the Kamashastra of Vatsyayana gives a very good idea of the vast extent of the subject and the depth and details with which it was studied. In the Kamashastra are not only included such sophisticated arts like music, dance and painting but also the art of application of cosmetics.

Gambling is taken as a class of . It is beyond one's imagination that there are fifteen kinds of arts (kalas) under this heading. The details to which an Indian mind could delve deep are astounding.

In fact the study of this subject Kala and Vidya leads to the impression that Indians do give attention to details of every Shastra. In order to marshall these details in logical manner they had classified the Shastra in different Kalas and Vidyas. There is nothing haphazard in presentation. The subject may be vast in extend and studied in minute details, still it is propounded most logically by such classification as Kala and Vidya.

Indians are vastly interested in all aspects of life. They are not interested only in the liberation of soul but also equally in other three achievements of a man.

The subject of Kalas and Vidyas is important in order to understand the development of not only of Indian culture but also of their extent of knowledge of life sciences, in the ancient and medieval period. Inspite of this, there is very little research work available on this subject. I am sure that scholars would delve deep in the literature and throw light on the dark corners of this subject.