Lok Sabha Question No. 1032 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-22
Subject: Availability of Manuscripts/Ancient Books on Ayurveda
Ministry: AYURVEDA,YOGA & NATUROPATHY,UNANI,SIDDHA AND HOMEOPATHY (AYUSH)
Asked by: Ajay (Teni) Misra

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AYURVEDA, YOGA & NATUROPATHY, UNANI, SIDDHA AND HOMOEOPATHY (AYUSH)

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION NO. 1032 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22 ND NOVEMBER, 2019

## AVAILABILITY OF MANU SCR IPTS/ANCIENT BOOKS O N AYURVEDA

## 1032. SHRI AJAY KUMAR MISRA TENI:

Will  the  Minister of AYURVEDA,  YOGA  AND  NATUROPATHY,  UNANI, SIDDHA AND HOMOEOPATHY (AYUSH) be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes to disseminate and preserve the knowledge of Ayurved medicines avail able in manuscripts, ancient books and other sources;
- (b) if so, the details of the steps taken by the Government to digitalise and patent the in this regard; and
- (c) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF AYURVEDA, YOGA & NATUROPATHY, UNANI, SIDDHA AND HOMOEOPATHY (SHRI SHRIPAD YESSO NAIK)

(a)& (b) : The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) has been set up by Council  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research  (CSIR)  in  collaboration  with  the Ministry  of  Ayurveda,  Yoga  &  Naturopathy,  Unani,  Siddha  and  Homeopathy (AYUSH)  to  prevent  misappropriation  o f  and  to  protect  the  knowledge  of  Indian traditional system of medicines.

TKDL  contains  Indian  traditional  medicine  knowledge  available  in  public domain  from  published  classical/  traditional  texts  related  to  Ayurveda,  Unani  and Siddha in a digitized forma t and is available in five international languages (English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese). So far; about 3.6 lakh formulations have been transcribed in TKDL database. Access to the TKDL database is currently provided to 13 Patent Offices worldwide through non - disclosure Access Agreements.

To preserve the ancient medical system of Ayurveda and to promote research and  development  in  Ayurveda,  National  Institute  of  Ayurveda  (NIA)  at  Jaipur  has developed World's first Audio - Visual Museum of Scientific History for Ayurveda and a Manuscript Unit have been set up recently to propagate the true essence of History of Ayurveda  and  Culture  by  taking  advantage  of  advanced  scientific  development  in Information  and  Communication  Technology  to  enhance  the  way  students  learn concepts, learning components an d to reduce tedious and mechanical aspects of some

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of of  the  current  learning  methods,  exploration  and  demonstration  of  phase - wise scientific  development  of  Ayurveda  Research  for  Students,  Visitors  and  Foreign Delegates.  It is well -equipped to conduct Nation al and International Level Workshops on Scripts, Methods of Cataloguing, Preservation, and Critical Editions Manuscripts.

The Manuscript Unit has collected old paper - made 35 rare manuscripts from different parts of the country and120 manuscripts and pu blications are digitalized.

The  Central  Council  for  Research  in  Ayurvedic  Science,  New  Delhi,  has undertaken various projects to disseminate and preserve the knowledge of Ayurvedic medicines available in manuscripts, ancient books and other sources and th ey have also  published  various  texts  from  ancient  manuscripts/rare  books  as  an  outcome  of these projects .

Under the Acquisition, Cataloguing, Digitization and Publication of Textbooks and Manuscripts the following number of manuscripts have been digitize d;

- i. 1679  Manuscripts/rare  books  have  been  digitized  under  the  project  entitled 'Survey,  Cataloguing  and  Digitized  inventory  of  Medical  Manuscripts  of Eastern India (Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar)'.
- ii. 770  Manuscripts  have  been  digitized  under  the  project  enti tled  'Survey, Cataloguing  and  Digitized  inventory  of  Medical  Manuscripts  of  North -East India' .
- iii. 2703  Manuscripts  have  been  digitized  under  the  project  entitled  'Collection and Digitization of Medical Manuscripts from South India, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (2008 - 2012).
- iv. The  CCRAS  has  also  published  13  books  based  on  manuscripts  as  original (Mula) text with or without commentary while 20 books have been published as original text with translation.
- v. Total  Manuscripts/Rare  books  digitized:  5152  and  Total  boo ks  original  text with/without translation published : 33

Institute of Post Graduate Training and Research in Ayurveda Jamnagar has 7500  Manuscripts  of  different  subjects  which  are  available  in  Library,  Gujarat Ayurveda  University,  Jamnagar,  out  of  which,  5 15  Ayurvedic  Manuscripts(1  Lakh pages) are Digitalised.

- (c) Does not arise.