Mangaluru: To commemorate the silver jubilee celebrations of the Shri Ramachandrapura Mutt, Pontiff Sri Raghaveshwara Bharathi Swamiji’s ‘Peetharohana’, the temple administration has decided to build the “Vishnugupta Vishwa Vidyapeetha” in the Uttara Kannada district’s Ashokavana, Gokarna. The administration has decided to name it after Chanakya, an ancient teacher, philosopher and economist.

Addressing the media regarding the project and its goals on Thursday, January 23, Raghaveshwara Bharathi said, “We have several universities all around the world. For one generation there are several universities, but the ‘Vishnugupta Vishwa Vidyapeetha’ will be one university for many generations to come. The idea is to teach ancient Indian skills in order to safeguard such skills and its teaching for years to come, as most of them have gone extinct and have been long forgotten. For example, if you to take Samaveda, it is the core of Indian music. It has 1000 branches, but only three exist in the current times. Now, even these three are endangered. There is no research on Indian skill education, yet some of the universities do it only on a micro level.”

“The purpose of this university is to bring all the ancient Indian knowledge under one roof. Here, we aim at making an individual an expert in one subject. We want to prepare students so they can go out into the world and help others with the knowledge that they have gained. This will be the first-of-its-kind university and is placed in a village setup amid nature. The education will be just like the ancient times,” he added.

Further, he said, “The motto of the university is to impart knowledge and loyalty. Sadly the current education system does not teach students to be loyal to anything. We want the students passing out of this university to contribute to the world in a field that they have achieved expertise. The university is non-commercial, teaching over 280 skills, with 80 departments and 12 faculties.”

He said that there was scope for expansion and will be looked into in the future.

Meanwhile, he clarified that there will be a fee structure for the courses provided and meritorious students will be given scholarships.