Indian Knowledge Systems use the ancient and indigenous knowledge of India to arrive at principles and techniques that are timeless, unique, and based on centuries of work. While the meticulously detailed temples with their mathematical grids are awe-inspiring, the simple and innovative design solutions and techniques encountered in the rural and urban ‘wilds’ of India are genuinely surprising and inspiring. There isn’t a shortage of indigenous solutions that surpass expensive designs while being sustainable, cheap and accessible. Indigenous Indian design has developed over time akin to evolution, arising at times from necessity and limited resources, birthing the best of ideas.

Classification of Indian Knowledge Systems

Since the topic of Indian Knowledge Systems is immensely vast, spanning over a large amount of content and time, it is important to first realise all the different ways in which it could potentially be classified, some of which could be based on:

1. Historical (knowledge gathered from scriptures and ancient documentation) or contemporary (looking at modern grassroot innovations). Contemporary innovations could be those done by people in extreme environments, either in rural or urban circumstances.
2. According to era: classical (before Mughals), medieval (Islamic) and modern (Post British)
3. Based on discipline, like Architecture, arts, etc.
4. Based on modern locations. India is huge, and focus could be set on Indian Knowledge Systems from specific states and communities.
5. Based on existing classification within design education, like colour, composition, etc.
6. Ancient scriptures (shastras) could be classified and one could be focussed upon. Another source of classical knowledge would be curricula of ancient universities like Nalanda, Taksha Shila, Vikramshila and Vallabhi.

Figure 47: Classifications of Indian Knowledge Systems

Design Process in Ancient India

In Western design tradition, stress on utility and function has led to the design process being an evolution of the final product from an exploration of the physical- materials and the forming processes. In contrast, the Eastern tradition, mainly emerging in India and China, gave rise to a design process where the object emerged as a result of giving Form to Ideas. Indian design process aims to give Form to the Formless. The Formless is an abstract principle/phenomenon, for which an Image is created to express the qualities and attributes of that phenomenon.

The Design Process begins with the realisation of an abstract idea. An integral understanding of the phenomenon to be visualised is essential. Some examples of abstract ideas that have been explored in the Indian scenario are ’Cosmic Order’, ’Cyclicity’, ’Time’, ’Wisdom’ and so on. The designer/artist is expected to fully understand the ins and outs of the principle and its attributes, as a Formless mental image.

The second step is metaphorising the abstract. This involves giving meaning to the Formless mental ideas using universally understood examples, like those from the real world. This is done using different techniques like mapping. The abstract is then concretised by extracting a universal design grammar from the metaphors. The design grammar can be a visual one if the final product is visual in nature, in which case the design grammar would consist of directly usable attributes like shapes, ratios and hierarchies.

Figure 48: Design Process for giving Form to Formless

The design grammar is then used to give the abstract a basic Form. This step involves exploring different ways of directly representing concepts such as hierarchies using techniques like grids. Once the basic form is in place, it is then enhanced through addition of attributes and details. These enhancements are done using techniques like parametrization and ornamentation.

Finally, a reflection of the final product is done to see how effective it is at expressing the intended meanings of the experiencer.

The Indian Design Process has been followed in the creation of many ancient design artefacts and buildings, such as Temples.