Course Content

This course spans 10 sessions of 100 minutes each. These sessions will cover aspects of the Cosmology and Calendar of the Hindu Civilization such as:

• Hindu Understanding of Celestial Motions
• Seasons and Cosmic Phenomena
• Hindu Timekeeping Measures
• Hindu Calendars
• Concept of Calendar and Timekeeping In The Western World
• Hindu System Of Time Tracking
• Calendar For Daily Living
• Calendar for Commemorating
• Connecting the Skies and Earth
• Calendar for Observances and Celebrations

Why do the Hindus have so many observances and festivals? Why do the Hindu festivals fall on different dates each year? Why do Hindus have a different Calendar? Is it scientific or full of dogma? Answers to such questions and more await the students in the course “Exploring Hinduism – Cosmology and Calendar”, a part of a series of courses that facilitate a structured exploration of various facets of one of the world’s most ancient families of traditions.

Why and where does the Hindu Calendar differ from the worldwide, commonly followed Gregorian Calendar? This course will also examine whether the Hindu calendar is scientific and if so, how does it bear relevance to the modern world? Coming in this series of courses, this course, titled “Exploring Hinduism – Cosmology and Calendar”, will take the explorer on a travel into the whorls of Space, to the very depths of Time in order to see the fundamentals that have gone to make up the Timekeeping tradition of the Hindu Civilization.

It will also throw more light on how Hindu celebrations and traditions are in sync with Nature and break the myths that have dubbed them falsely as superstitious, and belief based.
This course is open to all – with or without Indian or Hindu roots, wherever they may be in the world.
Being a credit course, it can be taken by students to satisfy academic goals.

For those in active professions, it will open their minds to a larger perspective of daily life and balancing work and celebrations.
This course is also open to teens with their friends, parents as well as grandparents, either together or separately, to take discussion and contemplation from beyond the course window, into the portals of home, family, and society.

This course is part of a Certificate Program of the University and credits will be awarded on successful completion of the program.
It can also be taken as a standalone course, in which case, participants will get a Course Completion document with course grade at the end of this course.