The Paurastya Vidyāpīṭham (PVP), also known as the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Religious Studies (POIRS), is an autonomous faculty specializing in ecclesiastical sciences, located at the St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary[1] in Kottayam, Kerala, India.
It was established by the Congregation for Catholic Education on July 3, 1982, to promote studies in Eastern religious traditions.
The institute traces its origins to 1973 when the Theology Department of St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary was affiliated with the Faculty of Oriental Ecclesiastical Sciences at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.
The Institute of Eastern Canon Law was formally established at PVP on December 12, 2016, and aggregated to the Faculty of Oriental Canon Law at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.
On December 12, 2022, the Dicastery for Culture and Education further recognized the department as the Autonomous Institute of Cycle I of Philosophy (Prot.