Harry Potter he is not, but a world-renowned magician has decided to teach a master’s degree in which he will reveal the closely guarded secrets of his 2,000-year-old craft.

P.C. Sorcar Jr.’s tricks include pulling a horse out of an empty bag, vanishing after being sealed in a box crushed by a road-roller and cycling through London and San Francisco with his eyes bandaged and plastered.

The 61-year-old magician said that the course in “Dramagic” would give away the techniques perfected by his family over eight generations.

He said that he wanted to stop an ancient art form dying out. “Harry Potter has made magic popular in the world,” he said. “A magic school will be able to attract many people. Indian magic is a misunderstood art. People think it’s a rabbit out of a hat. I want to prove that wrong.”

Prodip Chandra Sorcar’s father is the self-styled Maharaja of Magic, who took Hindu magic to an international standard. Sorcar, a psychology graduate, came to the world’s attention in 2000 when he led thousands to believe that the Taj Mahal had disappeared for nearly 90 seconds. He later explained that light rays had been refracted to create the illusion.

He has not missed a trick by announcing his plans just as Pottermania sweeps through India following the release of theOrder of the Phoenix, the fifth movie in the series.

His version of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be at the government-run Visva-Bharati University in eastern India and his course will begin next year. He plans to use street performers, or “madaris” to teach students their trade.

He said: “The 2,000-year-old craft of street magicians was passed on through word of mouth before. It would be a loss for Indian magic if this art was not preserved.”

For his next trick, he plans to ride on Dal Lake in Kashmir to help boost tourism in the Himalayan state which has been blighted by a 17-year separatist insurgency. He initially planned to perform the trick across the Red Sea, but abandoned the idea fearing that it could hurt religious sentiments.

Indian magic, or jadoo, is the practice of magic as performance and entertainment. Skills include sword-swallowing, fire-eating, juggling, hypnosis, contortionism and fire-walking.

The Indian rope trick, in which someone climbs a rope, disappears and then reappears, is one of the world’s oldest. It was mentioned by the 8th century Indian writer Sankara.

Harry Houdini learnt routines, including one in which he apparently swallowed a hundred needles, from Indian magicians performing at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

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