Indian School of Magic - Vishva Bhartiya Jadu Mantar Vidyalya

Indian School of Magic - Vishva Bhartiya Jadu Mantar Vidyalya ( विश्व भारतीय जादू मंतर विद्यालय )
Current School Motto : वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम ( The World is My Family)

Current School Logo.
Introduction: This is my first blog written to quench my thirst for giving an introduction to the world about the Indian School of Magic, mentioned in the Harry Potter Universe. Its Wikia page, has an article on it which is a stub , so I wanted to expand it. Here , no copyrights are claimed and all Harry Potter© materials / texts ,images or videos used are the property of Warner Bros. This blog will include both Hindi and English words for obvious reasons. This blog is not intended to hurt the sentiments of any country, race, religion, caste or creed. Its a fantasy fiction blog all historical figures or events named in it are for entertainment / recreational reading purposes. These stories are not true.

The Origins: The Indian School of Magic was established in 57 B.C.E. on orders of the great emperor Vikramāditya . He wanted to safeguard the population of his kingdom from foreign invasions carrying a magical threat in the future.

He ordered the nine jewels ( नवरत्न ) that was a council of nine famous scholars of his kingdom to find a high altitude place with a cool weather all year that can be used to establish an educational institution that teaches sorcery and witchcraft to its pupils who then on completion of their education can protect the people of his empire from the harmful magic of foreign invaders. The school was decided to be set up at Pachmarhi hill station that is today located in central India, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It has an elevation of 1100 m and its coordinates are 22.4667°N 78.4333°E.

The nine jewels with approval of King Vikramaditya decided that the school building / castle should not be visible to the non - magical folks because of their skeptic and antagonistic views towards magicians. So, the castle was located in a hidden valley to which its students and teachers reached by travelling through a complex system of caves. The entry into those cave system was only possible through a special incantation or Mantra. There was a Yaksha present at the mouth of the cave system as a guard of the caves to whom the secret mantra was to be recited correctly by the magical human, failing which he will throw that person off the cliff. Yaksha was very good in differentiating between magical and non-magical folks, so even if some non-magical person acquired the secret mantra somehow, he won't let that person in and he will be pushed of the cliff too.The cave system was located behind a waterfall, on a hill. The school's best suited location was decided based on precise calculations of Varahamihira (Astronomer, astrologer and mathematician) and Shanku (Geographer, architect ). The date and time of its opening was decided by most renowned astrologer out of the nine jewels Kshapanaka, who estimated the values that were most suited for effective functioning of the school and with the help of Shanku created a calendar for working days of the school keeping in mind the variation in weather of the area during different months of the traditional calendar. The students were given summer holidays between Shukla Paksha Shashthi of Jyeshtha ( Vedic Ritu : Grishma = Summer) month and Shukla Paksha Ekadshi of Ashadha month (Vedic Ritu : Grishma ) . That holiday month, according to this Gregorian calendar year fell between 31st May 2017 to 4th July 2017. The winter holidays lasted roughly between last 10 days of December and ≤ first 15 days of the January month according to the Gregorian calendar. All of these nine jewels were great wizards of that era. Wizards in those days were usually self-taught and the art /science of sorcery & witchcraft were in its developing stage, so many experiments will still ongoing in this field to invent new spells and to create new potions. Only few lucky people got the chance of learning sorcery under a proper Guru but the art of magic stayed within the magical families during those days. The school's architecture was designed by Shanku with the help of Varahamihira. It had an architecture similar to the Chittor Fort present in the state of Rajasthan, India.

The nine jewels of king Vikramāditya with photo portraits :

Vetala Bhatta (वेताल भट्ट )
Dhanvantri ( धन्वंतरि )
Varahamihira ( वराहमिहिर )
Vararuchi ( वररूचि )
Amarasimha ( अमरसिंह )
Kalidasa ( कालिदास )
Kshapanaka ( क्षपणक )
Shanku ( शंकु )
Ghatakarpar ( घटकर्पर )

Eight out of these nine scholars led to the formation of four houses inspired from the four major animals of their kingdom. There were two scholars in each of these houses who taught different subjects. Vetala Bhata was appointed the first principal of the school by the king and he was a complete neutral as he didn't belong to any of these recently established four houses of the schools. These four houses had different symbols or crests. The name of theses houses along with its founding members :-

Roar of a Tiger ( बाघ की दहाड़ )

Its founders are Kshapanaka and Dhanvantari.

This house values courage, bravery, nerve and chivalry. This house roughly corresponds to the element of 'fire', i.e. why color red and yellow are used in its crest.

Serpent King ( नागराज )

Its founders are Varahamihira and Kalidasa.

This house values shrewdness, resourcefulness and ambition. This house roughly corresponds to the element of 'earth' ,i.e. why King cobra is used as its symbol which inhabits earth / land.

Dreaded Crocodile ( खूंखार मगरमच्छ )

Its founders are Shanku and Vararuchi.

This house values dedication, hard work, competitiveness, patience, in-credulousness and fair play. This house roughly corresponds to element of 'water', i.e. why crocodile is used as its symbol, who most of its life stays in the water for hunting.

Sway of an Owl ( शासन कौशिक का )

Its founders are Ghatakarpar and Amarsimha.

This house values learning, wisdom, wit and intellect.This house roughly corresponds to the element of 'air' , i.e. why an owl is used as its symbol, which is a bird of prey.

These houses were established to develop each student's mentality and magical skills differently, following different approaches to acquire the same goal of magical excellence and infuse them with a competitive spirit , so that they can reach or surpass their potential talents. For this house cup, an year long competition was held for students belonging to these four houses to compete with each other and win points for their respective houses. This competition included activities such as - 'disciplined routine' which was to be maintained , deserting it leads to breaking of rules of the school which resulted in deduction of points of the undisciplined pupil , academics, sports competitions,etc. This competition helped the students in developing a team spirit by representing the same house and coordinating their activities with their house members. The sports taught in the school were Chaturanga (Indoor) and Yoga (Outdoor / Indoor ). Annual competitions of Human Chaturanga and Yoga Asanas were also held, where a person had to perform the Asana with best posture and be in that posture for a long time. Playing Chaturanga improved students mental ability, strategy making and doing Yoga improved both their physical and mental health. The school curriculum was designed by the great sorcerer and principal of the school Vetala Bhatta who was a pioneer in the field of dark magic and a leading conjurer in the field of Tantric practices. The school for its first three years had a seven year course that involved :-

Compulsory Courses: Transfiguration (Vanishing and Conjuring Spells included), Defence against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, Astrology, Palmistry, Apparition, Alchemy, Flying, Occlumency, Charms, Ghouls, Handling / Care of magical creatures, Ayurveda ( it included potions making) and creating magical kavacha.
Additional or Advanced Courses : Vimāna making, Legilimency ,Time travel, practices to win Astra from Devatas, astral projection (Only taught to 'selected' students, who passed a test where there teacher used legilimency on them to gather their motivation behind the desire to learn this sacred art, only students with good moral behavior qualified for it.) , creation and usage of magical staff which was used for complex magic rituals. It had a gemstone with magical properties at the top of it like- blood stone, jade,etc. These gemstones helped the sorcerers in magnifying and focusing their power through the use of sacred mantras.

Blood Stone

Jade Stone

A magical staff embedded with Jade stone.

Use of incantations and hands was done more commonly to invoke a spell, charm,etc. Flying was done by mastering Ashtanga and Hatha yoga through which the student can invoke one's 2nd psychic power called Laghima which gives a person ability to not only float above different things but also helps him/her in flying in the air over long distances. Magical staff were used only for complex and endearing magical spells.A student may go for basic / compulsory courses for his 7 year study or may choose to do advanced courses as well. A student can choose upto 3 courses out of the given advanced courses in his 4th year. Vetala Bhatta ( Principal ) taught Defence against the Dark Arts and legilimency to the students. After three years the school program was extended to 7+3 system where the advanced courses were shifted to the extra three years which student may choose to do as these three years were optional. This was done after the school's infrastructure and a royal ministry of magic was established by the king Vikramaditya that functioned under the direct supervision of Baital , it had different departments dedicated to different branches of magic. These branches of magic provided practical learning and a real life experience of the courses the respective students were studying in those extra 3 years. This created more professionalism amongst students and teachers. Dhanvantri taught Ayurveda and alchemy; Varahamihira taught astronomy, chaturanga and vimana making; Vararuchi taught ghouls, time travel and care of magical creatures; Amarsimha taught flying and creating of magical kavacha; Kalidasa taught practices to win Astra from Devatas and Yoga; Kshapanaka taught astrology, charms and palmistry; Shanku taught occlumency and magical staff making and Ghatakarpar taught apparition, transfiguration and astral projection.

Headmaster's Student Sorting Ceremony.

The students of V.B.J.M.V. were sorted into their respective houses by using a special circle spell that involved all of the school professors. The ceremony was led by the headmaster - Vetala Bhata who recited the special mantra by drawing a Shree Yantra between the large circle of the spell that contained a natural kund (कुंड; A kund is a man made or a natural water reservoir or pool of water usually fed by water channeled down from a river) inside the school grounds.

An image of Shree Yantra.

Image of Gaumukh Kund at Chittorgarh Fort.

In this spell a lock of hair pluck from the student's forehead was thrown into the kund then a special mantra mentioning the full name of the student, date of birth ( जन्म नक्षत्र ), and his / her place of birth was recited by all the professors. This immersion of the pupil's hair in the magical kund led to the change in the transparent and crystal clear water of the kund to the color of the crest of the house that suited the requirements of the pupil, i.e. the house that can develop the complete potential of the student and bring the best out of him / her. The colored water also churned out a magical stone that belonged to the student and was to be awarded to the student after his completion of the studies by the headmaster with it being placed at the top of a magical staff. The color of the stone could be a different shades of the color of the water depending upon the strength of the innate magic inside the student. For example, Jade stones were usually recovered from the water of the kund when the student belonged to the house : The Dreaded Crocodile (green color is outlining its crest). The intense green color of the jade stone indicated strong magical strength of the student.

In the image above color of the water is same as the crest of the house : The Serpent King.

The image above shows the color of the kund's water changing to golden which is same as the color of crest of the house : Sway of an Owl.

But, sometimes the color of the kund's water changed to white or black. Those cases indicated that the student was extra special and possessed some better inborn abilities. The white colored water was actually ice as the immersion of the student's lock of hair led to the freezing of the kund's water. From that kund, the headmaster carefully excavated a magical white stone. Similarly, the black colored water had a magical black stone in it. The students that led to the furnishing of the magical white (rare) stone from the kund, usually became witch doctors or shaman. Similarly, the students that led to the furnishing of black (rarest) stone from the kund became guardian of the kingdom, master auror , chiefs of the magical armies of the different regions / kingdoms of the world. The students with white and black stones on their staff also formed part of the elite magical force of the earth that protects it from alien (Extra Terrestrial) invasions. The white and black stones students were equally suited for all houses so the headmaster for their sorting used his very special mind-reading techniques on those pupils to understand the nature of the student being sorted. Then the headmaster puts those students in the house that suits their respective nature and follows their desired method of learning.