New Delhi: 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, 515 Ayurvedic Manuscripts(1 Lakh pages) are Digitalised.

This detail was shared by minister of state of the ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoepathy Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply in Lok Sabha.

The minister in his reply further said: 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 of 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 format 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 and to reduce tedious and mechanical aspects of some 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 National and International Level Workshops on Scripts, Methods of Cataloguing, Preservation, and Critical Editions of Manuscripts.

The Manuscript Unit has collected old paper-made 35 rare manuscripts from different parts of the country and120 manuscripts and publications 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 they 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 digitized;

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 entitled “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 books original text with/without translation published : 33