Session 39 (3 December) Shri Srinath Mohandas, (Assistant Professor, Department of Education) spoke on the Gruhyasutras. This was the last talk on Kalpa Vedanga. As the name signifies, these sutras deal with the rites performed by a householder in the grihyagni, the sacred fire tended at his home. These sutras include the popularly known 16 samskaras.
Session 40 (10 December) Prof. Gauri Mahulikar (Dean of Faculty) spoke on Vedic Cosmology—I. In this part, she discussed the mystery of creation as described in the Purushasukta. This is the most important Vedic sukta which is found in all four samhitas. Prof. Mahulikar described how creation mentioned here is sequential, and how the concept of yajna is emphasized in the sukta.
Session 41 (17 December) In Part two of the talk on Vedic Cosmology, Prof. Gauri Mahulikar (Dean of Faculty) s discussed two well-known hymns from the Rigveda: the Hiranyagarbha Sukta and the Nasadiya Sukta. These are important hymns on creation. They are a little mystical in nature and pave the path of Upanishadic philosophy. Hiranyagarbha means a golden egg/embryo and Nasadiya sukta puts a riddle to the reader.
Session 42 (24 December) Dr. Pavankumar Satuluri (Assistant Professor, School of Linguistics and Literary Studies), introduced the concept of Natural Language Processing and illustrated a few sutras by Panini, and showed the relevance of Indian Grammatical Tradition for Natural Language Processing. This talk was an extension of a previous lecture on Vedanga Vyakarana by Dr. Nagendra Pavana.