SandHISangrahalay Museum of Scientific Study of Indian Knowledge Systems

PI: Prof. Kaumadi Patil

Co-PI: Prof. Saikat Ghosh

           Prof. Anurag Gupta

           Prof. Mahendra K. Verma

The SandHISangrahalay is envisaged as an interactive platform for displaying the finest intellectual achievements of the Indian mind in the field of science and technology as expressed and manifested in its material culture. It is a celebration of Indian science and technology as understood through the remnants of the past in the archived as well as living traditions of the country. The SandHI projects decoding and analyzing various areas of science and technology such as water harvesting systems, sound engineering, tectonic and seismic analyses as well as metallurgy will feed into the museum content directly. The museum will thus mark the progress of the projects and also be in a constant stage of evolution as data is added, modified or deleted from its content. Therefore, unlike the traditional museums, content here is open ended, improvisatory and evolutionary. More interestingly, it follows a bottom up approach of constructing scientific principles from the knowledge embedded in artifacts or other tangible manifestations of their creators as well as their environment. In most museums, principles are displayed independent of their applications but the interactivity of this museum would lie in the manner in which it would facilitate the derivation of a principle rather than its elicitation. In this sense, the museum content is designed as a learning pedagogy rather than an exhibition or a display.