What our students have to say about the Master’s Certificate in Sanskrit Studies offered by HUA, in partnership with MIT School of Vedic Sciences.
The Master’s Certificate in Sanskrit Studies offered by HUA, in partnership with MIT School of Vedic Sciences, is one of a kind graduate-level program in Sanskrit in the USA. It is delivered primarily in Sanskrit as a medium of instruction, featuring immersive, practice-oriented study, providing direct, unmediated access to source-texts. It prepares the students to explore ancient and classical texts such as the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Purāṇas, the Shastras and the Prasthāna Traya, without having to rely on translations. The program has received an overwhelmingly positive response, so far.
Here are a few extracts from what some of our current students have to say about the Program.
Uma Nagarajan, Indiana, USA
Namaste!
I just completed the first semester of the MA Sanskrit Program offered by Hindu University of America in partnership with MIT-School of Vedic Sciences. It’s offered in two-year, three-year, four-year options. I chose the two-year program as I wanted to dedicate two years for focused study. I wondered how the timing would work with full-time work and family commitments. It worked quite well, as the class timings are convenient for various time zones. There are six 1.5 hour classes in the week. We need a few more hours for studying, listening to the class recordings, assignments, etc. So, with around 15 hours of commitment each week, I was able to complete the first semester quite well. The faculty and the acharyas are very knowledgeable. They readily clarify doubts and answer questions of students at any time – in the live class, online class discussion forums, emails, and messages. What I managed to learn in the first semester is amazing. The Vyakaranam course not just introduced us to Ashtaadhyaayi but enabled us to interpret the sutras by ourselves. The Vedic Sciences Foundation course is very unique and gives a very scientific and structured perspective of our Shastras and shaastra-granthaas. Though the focus of this MA program is on learning the language and saahityam, it also offers popular elective choices to explore from the wealth of knowledge that is available in the language – the Vedas, Vedanta and the Shastras. I am very grateful to MIT, HUA and the acharayas for offering this program online with affordable schedule options.
Amit Rao, Mumbai – India
I’ve always been passionate about languages – how they work, how we use them to communicate and to represent knowledge, as well as how they reflect human evolution. My early research in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and English-Hindi machine translation deepened this interest. I was therefore always fascinated by Sanskrit. After 3 years of self-learning, I decided to pursue a formal Master’s degree. After exploring the available options, I found the MIT School of Vedic Sciences (SVS) offered in partnership with the Hindu University of America to be best suited for my needs. It was fully online, so I could do it from home while getting an officially recognized masters degree at the same time. Above all, I liked the breadth of coverage and the modern and flexible feel of the syllabus. Now, in my second semester, I’m thrilled and deeply grateful for my choice.
This program combines the best of both worlds – A brilliant faculty deeply trained in traditional Sanskrit knowledge systems and learning methodologies that are using the latest technology platforms to make the learning globally and flexibly accessible. The faculty are extremely approachable and committed to fine-tuning the course to the extent possible to suit the students’ best interests. A wonderful peer group of students passionate about the subject and supportive of one another was an added blessing.
The biggest surprise factor of the course for me, and the most pleasant and valuable one, was to discover the incredibly scientific, holistic and integrated nature of our Indic knowledge systems. This methodology of creating, discussing, inferring and encoding new knowledge, as well as the timeless value of the vast knowledge already encoded in Sanskrit are best learned in this language. My Sanskrit fluency has improved by leaps and bounds due to the immersive exposure to high-quality Shastric Sanskrit in which all the teachers here teach. I keenly look forward to sharing my knowledge and insights about the scientific nature of our shastras and exploring how they can be used to enrich all our modern disciplines.
I definitely and highly recommend the MIT-SVS-HUA MA Sanskrit program to anyone who wants to explore the Indic knowledge systems deeply. I find it value-for-money.
Anil Vashistha, Indianapolis
Namaste!
Having completed the undergraduate level Distance Learning Program courses provided by SamskritaBharati, I was eager to enroll in a master’s level Sanskrit Program. It sounded like a dream come true when I heard about the MA program offered by Hindu University of America in partnership with MIT School of Vedic Sciences. I quickly took the prerequisite Sanskrit proficiency test. I was quite anxious as to how the program would unfold but once the classes began, all the anxiety turned into pure joy and I had a feeling of being offered something very very special.
The timing of the classes, assignments, availability of study material – everything was very well thought out by the faculty. As for the teachers, there are no words that can express their depth of knowledge, teaching skills, and the abundance of patience. Yet these are not just any regular university lecturers. These are the best of the class Acharyas in their own fields. Beyond just prescribing a book and conducting an exam at the end of the semester, this course had hands-on, interactive sessions with the rarest of the Acharyas, all in samskritam. Assignments made us think and express our understanding in samskritam. And each and every assignment was thoroughly examined and constructive feedback was given. The course is structured beautifully – starts off with a birds-eye view of Vedic literature and then dives into the important components of our Shastras with a goal of enabling students to be able to study the original Shastras – themselves!
If you are interested in the program pre-register here for more information: https://info.hua.edu/ma-sanskrit-prereg-form