NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 27, 2016 (Sunday Guardian Live): Around 300-400 manuscripts exist on different types of yoga in India’s treasure box, not one of which has been deciphered. According to the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), these are part of the approximately ten million manuscripts in the country that are yet to be published. In fact, less than 10% of ancient manuscripts in India have been published.
The oldest manuscript in NMM’s database belongs to the 6th century and is written in the Gilgit script, which belongs to the Gilgit Baltistan region in the north. Since its inception in 2003, the NMM has managed to create a database of over 4 million manuscripts in secular and religious sciences in over 57 scripts. However, scholars complain that the lack of published manuscripts, especially in ancient Indian sciences, has slackened India’s potential dominance in the international scientific industry. Scholars believe that a major reason behind this has been the lack of political goodwill in investing in transliteration of ancient manuscripts.
The value of ancient Indian manuscripts is evident with Japan’s rapid growth in ayurvedic research as the Asian neighbor has been known to invest in developing advanced ayurvedic technology. “Illiteracy in our ancient research has led us to follow the lead of other cultures because we do not know how much our heritage and science had excelled in the world. This ignorance has made us late-risers, but a genuine effort is needed to promote the study of ancient Indian texts that can help us in governance, scientific research, cultural development and medicine,” said Dr. N.C. Kar, an expert in manuscripts and a coordinator at NMM.