India as a nation is blessed with a long and fascinating history of heritage, culture, and spirituality. The cultural markers of India right from religion, languages, occupation, food, music, dance, symbols, and so on have in them a deep history and tradition, some of them yet to be unraveled. During the introductory course, many topics that could throw significant light on the Civilizational heritage and cultural markers of India were discussed as a prelude to the intermediate course.
        
        Topics covered during the Intermediate course were :
        
        Sources of Indian History - Prof. La Na Swamy
        Indian philosophy and spirituality – Prof. M A Alwar
        Indian architecture – Dr. K Dakshinamoorthy Sthapati
        Heritage Conservation - Panel discussion on stakeholders, participatory approaches and policies – by Panelists – Prof. Divay Gupta, Prof. Nizamuddin Taher and Dr. M R Seetharam
        
         There were 15 participants enrolling themselves for this Intermediate course on Understanding India, who received it with enthusiastic interaction with the resource persons , sharing their opinions and insights as well.
        
        Participant Speak:
        
        “Deep scientific research seems necessary on various Indian cultural practices. As I learn different things, I feel it is important to adopt this learning in everyday life life, so as to be a living reflection of the learning “ – V Ramaprasad, Participant
        
        “This part of the temple architecture has always been less discussed, so was very happy to get exposed to this part of the information. The design of square, octagon and circle for the Shiva Lingam was new for me” - - Sunil J Sharma, Participant