Introduced in 1999, the seminal Post-Graduate Diploma in Indian Aesthetics attempts to understand the ideas that have shaped our worldviews, thereby leading to the development of visual forms. Through the disciplines of Art History, Archaeology, Philosophy, Anthropology, Literature and Architecture, the course takes in almost 5000 years of visual art and aesthetics encompassing the Premodern, Modern and Contemporary traditions along with the vibrant Popular and Folk.An understanding of the philosophical and religious tenets of the period being crucial to the study of art, the Vedic, Buddhist, Jaina, Hindu-Agamic, Tantric and Islamic doctrines are examined in relation to their influence on architecture, sculpture and painting of the time. Aesthetic theories and texts, shastric concepts and precepts and their role in the understanding of Indian art are all examined. The inter-disciplinary nature of Indian art is reviewed by placing illustrated manuscript paintings in their literary context. The course ends with the study of colonialism, nationalism, modernism, post-modernism, and their visual paradigms.The scholars teaching the course are internationally renowned in their respective fields. They have ensured that the visual material is broad-based geographically, historically, culturally as well as materially.