CCRAS signs MoU with Berhampur University to digitize rare Ayurvedic manuscripts

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences under the Ministry of Ayush and Berhampur University will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to digitize, catalog, and publish rare Ayurvedic manuscripts and palm leaf documents preserved at the South Odisha Cultural Study Centre, giving a boost to India’s efforts to preserve traditional medical knowledge.

The agreement focuses on digitally safeguarding rare Ayurvedic texts held in Odisha while improving their accessibility for researchers and scholars.

The collaboration will be implemented through the National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage in Hyderabad, a peripheral unit of CCRAS.

The MoU signing ceremony will be held at the Central Ayurveda Research Institute in Bhubaneswar in the presence of Berhampur University Vice Chancellor Prof Geetanjali Das, CCRAS Director General Prof (Vaidya) Rabinarayan Acharya, and Prof B S Prasad, former president of the National Council for Indian System of Medicine.

Berhampur University houses more than 2,000 palm leaf manuscripts, many of which contain valuable Ayurvedic knowledge and remain unpublished.

Under the partnership, advanced digitization methods will be used to preserve the fragile documents and create long-term digital records.

As part of the project, rare Ayurvedic books, periodicals, and manuscripts will be digitized, and digital copies will be provided to the university.

A detailed reference work titled “Descriptive Catalogue of Ayurveda Manuscripts of SOCSC BU, Odisha” will be prepared using 44 data fields to support academic research. The catalogue will be hosted on the AMAR portal to allow global access to manuscript metadata.

Selected manuscripts will be transcribed, transliterated, and translated into modern languages to support research and integrate traditional knowledge into contemporary medical studies.

Prof (Vaidya) Rabinarayan Acharya said the initiative is part of a national mission to document and validate India’s traditional knowledge systems.

Prof Geetanjali Das said the partnership would help protect the manuscripts while strengthening the university’s role in cultural and medical heritage research.

The MoU will be valid for an initial period of two years. Both institutions have agreed to follow strict confidentiality and intellectual property guidelines, with Berhampur University retaining custodianship of the manuscripts.

The program is being coordinated by Dr M M Rao, director of CARI Bhubaneswar; Dr Sarada Ota, assistant director at CARI Bhubaneswar; and Dr Santosh Mane, research officer at NIIMH Hyderabad, along with officials from both institutions.