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UID:128@chanakyauniversity.edu.in
DTSTART:20260204T043000Z
DTEND:20260204T103000Z
DTSTAMP:20260218T121628Z
URL:https://chanakyauniversity.edu.in/events/seminar-on-manuscripts-knowle
 dge-traditions-preservation-and-contemporary-approaches-in-person/
SUMMARY:Seminar on Manuscripts: Knowledge Traditions\, Preservation\, and
 Contemporary Approaches [In-person]
DESCRIPTION:The event commenced with an introductory and welcome address by
 Prof. Ashwin Kumar\, Head and In-Charge of the Centre for the Study of
 Indian Languages (CSIL)\, Chanakya University. This was followed by the
 formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing an
 academic and technical partnership between Chanakya University and the
 Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).\n\nThe MoU was signed
 by Prof. Sushant Joshi\, Registrar\, Chanakya University\, and Dr. Ramesh
 C. Gaur\, Dean (Administration)\, IGNCA\, along with Sri Mahendra D
 (Bangalore Regional Head\, IGNCA)\, in the august presence of Prof.
 Subrahmanya\, Pro-Vice-Chancellor\, Chanakya University. The partnership
 aims to foster long-term collaboration in academic\, archival\, and digital
 initiatives related to Indian knowledge systems and manuscript
 traditions.\n\nThe seminar series formally began with an inaugural address
 by Dr. Ramesh C. Gaur\, who took the audience on an immersive and
 historically grounded exploration of the importance of manuscript
 preservation. He outlined why manuscripts constitute irreplaceable
 repositories of civilizational knowledge and discussed the contemporary
 challenges involved in their conservation. Dr. Gaur traced the
 institutional history of IGNCA and highlighted its significant
 contributions to manuscript preservation in India\, ranging from early
 pioneering efforts in microfilming\, through optical character recognition
 (OCR) initiatives\, to current large-scale digitization projects.\n\nWhile
 acknowledging the critical role played by national initiatives such as the
 National Mission for Manuscripts and Gyan Bharatam\, Dr. Gaur drew
 attention to the fragmented nature of preservation efforts\, often
 dispersed across multiple institutions\, platforms\, and standards. He
 cautioned against common misconceptions surrounding digital preservation\,
 clarifying that digitization alone does not guarantee long-term
 preservation unless accompanied by robust archival practices\, redundancy\,
 and systematic backup strategies\, including the creation of reliable
 digital analogues.\n\nA key distinction emphasized in his address was
 between the preservation of metadata and the preservation of the actual
 manuscript content. Dr. Gaur noted that while several widely used scripts
 have been rapidly digitized\, there remain numerous lesser-known or
 regional scripts for which Unicode standards or stable typesetting systems
 do not yet exist\, posing serious challenges for inclusive digitization. He
 concluded by stressing the urgent need for a centralized\, publicly
 accessible hosting platform that can integrate diverse preservation efforts
 and make manuscript resources widely available to scholars and the public
 alike.\n\nThis was followed by a lecture by Prof. K. Ramasubramaniam\, from
 IIT Bombay\, who spoke on Chandaḥśāstra in a highly interactive and
 engaging session. He guided the audience through the recognition of
 structural patterns in Indian textual traditions that distinguish between
 prose and poetry\, and that\, in many cases\, determine the explanatory
 force and meaningfulness of specific textual passages.\nDrawing on his
 extensive scholarly engagement with classical works such as Līlāvatī and
 Bṛhatsaṃhitā\, Prof. Ramasubramaniam demonstrated how metrical
 structure is not ornamental but epistemically significant—shaping how
 arguments are presented\, remembered\, and transmitted. In these works\, he
 noted\, metre often functions as a crucial aid to comprehension\,
 pedagogy\, and textual integrity\, rather than merely as a poetic
 device.\n\nHe emphasized that without sustained manual training\,
 disciplined transmission practices\, and rigorous proofreading\,
 contemporary digitization efforts risk being reduced to the mere
 preservation of images of texts\, rather than the preservation of living
 knowledge systems. Prof. Ramasubramaniam underscored that the effective
 transmission of human knowledge must remain central to the mission of any
 research centre or cultural institution\, and that technological tools and
 digitization initiatives must be integrated with—rather than substituted
 for—human scholarly engagement.\n\nThe morning session concluded with a
 presentation by Dr. Buddha Chandrasekhar\, CEO of Anuvadini AI and Chief
 Coordinating officer of AICTE\, who spoke immediately following Prof.
 Ramasubramaniam’s session. Dr. Chandrasekhar took the audience through
 the technical\, linguistic\, and conceptual challenges involved in
 developing AI models for manuscript processing and for Indian languages
 more broadly.\nHe reiterated the Government of India’s and the Prime
 Minister’s emphasis on building sovereign foundational AI models\, while
 simultaneously highlighting the distinctive difficulties posed by
 Asian—and especially Indian—linguistic diversity. Unlike relatively
 homogeneous linguistic traditions such as Latin\, Indian languages exhibit
 complex grammatical structures\, script diversity\, and deep regional
 variation\, all of which present significant challenges for large-scale AI
 training and deployment.\n\nDrawing on Anuvadini’s first-hand
 experience\, Dr. Chandrasekhar shared insights from their work on textbook
 translation projects and the development of Indian-language\, voice-based
 audiobooks across multiple academic disciplines. The session generated a
 lively discussion\, with participants raising questions ranging from
 practical translation workflows to deeper conceptual issues in
 cross-linguistic translation.\nA particularly significant point emphasized
 by Dr. Chandrasekhar was the centrality of visual memory in Indian
 knowledge traditions and cultural transmission. While visuality plays a
 crucial role in pedagogy\, ritual\, and textual practices in India\, he
 noted that it also constitutes one of the most formidable challenges for
 contemporary AI systems\, especially in the processing\, interpretation\,
 and contextualization of manuscript images and other visual cultural
 artifacts.\n\nThe post-lunch session commenced with a presentation by Dr.
 Dharmendrakumar N. Bhatt\, from the L D Institute of Indology\, Ahmedabad\,
 who introduced the origin\, historical development\, and writing practices
 of the Śāradā script. Drawing on his extensive experience in manuscript
 studies and palaeography\, Dr. Bhatt highlighted the distinctive features
 of the script and emphasized the importance of manual practice for
 developing scriptal competence. He encouraged students to engage directly
 with writing exercises\, underscoring that embodied familiarity with
 scripts is indispensable for serious manuscript scholarship.\n\nThis was
 followed by a presentation delivered by Smt Pooja Porwal the CEO of
 Manuscripts and Inscriptions Digitisation Foundation\, who provided an
 overview of the scale\, diversity\, and multi-level nature of manuscript
 initiatives currently underway across India. She highlighted the
 Foundation’s enthusiasm for contributing to the development of a unified
 national hosting platform in collaboration with the Gyan Bharati Mission\,
 aimed at integrating dispersed preservation and digitisation
 efforts.\n\nThe session also featured an experiential account by Sri Ravi
 Teja from Vishvena Tech Solutions\, a Gyan Sethu Awardee and emerging
 deep-tech professional\, who spoke about his startup journey and the
 application of AI technologies to manuscript studies. A central concern
 raised during his presentation was the pressing issue of intellectual
 property rights and data sovereignty in relation to manuscripts. He pointed
 out a significant lacuna: when advanced technological solutions developed
 using Indian manuscript data enter the public domain without adequate
 safeguards\, they are often rapidly productized and patented by external
 actors\, particularly in Western markets.\n\nMr. Teja argued for a
 strategic shift in perspective—urging that manuscripts be treated not
 only as carriers of cultural and civilizational knowledge for public
 welfare\, but also as potentially patentable knowledge assets in an era
 marked by capital-intensive\, technology-driven markets\, especially in
 sectors such as health\, disease\, and therapeutic research.\n\nThe session
 concluded with closing remarks\, followed by the exchange of books and
 tokens of gratitude between the host Centre for the Study of Indian
 Languages (CSIL) and the participants. The event ended with a high tea\,
 providing an informal setting for continued discussion and the exploration
 of future ideas and collaborative possibilities.
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CATEGORIES:CU events,Centre for the Study of Indian Languages
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