In academia[?] the humanities are the classics and liberal arts; those subjects supposedly taught for their social and intellectual merit, rather than for pragmatic use.
Subjects classed under the label of the humanities:
... guna[?], and vrdhii[?] grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the guna grade vowel is traditionally thought of a V + a, and the vrdhii grade vowel as V + aa. ...