School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy & Comparative Religions

The School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy & Comparative Religions has been functioning since 2016-17 and growing academically and logistically. It offers two Masters programs, namely – MA in Buddhist Studies, Philosophy & Comparative Religions and MA in Hindu Studies (Sanātana Dharma), along with the Global PhD program. These programs consist of a composite curriculum consisting of a History of Hindu and Buddhist traditions, a text-based study of different philosophical systems of India and a Comparative Study of Religions. The School also offers separate training in classical languages such as Pali, Sanskrit, and Tibetan to facilitate the reading of the primary Hindu and Buddhist texts. The skills imparted to students extend from rigorous reading of literary and philosophical texts to archaeological training.

The wider social-historical-cultural-religious contexts of the development of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions are examined through an innovative and intra-subject curriculum. The School fosters critical thinking and explores the cultural and historical contexts of Buddhism and Hindu traditions in different regions of India and Asia.

The Masters and PhD programs of SBSPCR inspire the students for collaborative research and engage them in a wide range of interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary activities in a cafeteria model so that the graduates of this program could be eligible for employment in academics and organisations that work with intercultural and multicultural issues.

The school follows the cafeteria model of curricula, which provides the students with a broader range of diverse subjects from the SBS and other Schools in the University.