Decoding India’s medical heritage: Scholars make rare ayurvedic manuscripts research-ready

In a significant step towards preserving India’s classical medical knowledge, the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) , under the Ministry of Ayush, in collaboration with the Central Sanskrit University (CSU), New Delhi , conducted a 15-day Transliteration Capacity Building Workshop on Ayurvedic manuscripts at CSU’s Guruvayoor Campus in Kerala from January 12–25.

The residential workshop brought together 33 scholars —18 from Ayurveda and 15 from Sanskrit—fostering an interdisciplinary approach to manuscript studies. Organized under a Memorandum of Understanding between CCRAS and CSU, the initiative forms part of a national effort to document, digitize, and make classical Ayurvedic manuscripts research-ready .

The training programme focused on manuscriptology, palaeography, technical Ayurvedic terminology, and script orientation , with specialized sessions on Grantha and Vattezhuthu scripts. Emphasis was laid on hands-on transliteration , enabling participants to work directly on original palm-leaf manuscripts.

As a major scholarly outcome, five rare and previously unpublished manuscripts were transliterated and made available for advanced research. These included Dhanwanthari (Vaidya) Chinthamani , a 146-page manuscript transliterated from Grantha into Sanskrit; Dravyashuddhi , a 110-page Grantha manuscript transliterated into Sanskrit; Vaidyam , a 59-page Medieval Malayalam manuscript transliterated into Malayalam; Roga Nirnaya, Part I , consisting of 75 pages transliterated from Medieval Malayalam into Malayalam; and Vividharogangal , a 78-page Vattezhuthu manuscript transliterated into both Malayalam and Sanskrit.

Addressing the valedictory function, Prof. Vaidya Rabinarayan Acharya , Director General of CCRAS, noted that this was the second collaborative programme with CSU under the Ayurveda Manuscript Research Initiative , with the first workshop in Odisha having transliterated 14 manuscripts. Prof. K. K. Shine , Director of CSU Guruvayoor Campus, and Prof. K. Vishwanathan reaffirmed the university’s commitment to preserving and reviving Malayalam Ayurvedic manuscripts, a vital part of India’s regional medical heritage.

The programme, coordinated by Prof. K. Vishwanathan (CSU) and Dr. Parvathy G. Nair (CCRAS) , was widely appreciated for its integrated approach and tangible research outcomes . CCRAS emphasized that such initiatives not only strengthen evidence-based Ayurveda but also help conserve regional medical traditions and ensure the long-term preservation of India’s classical medical knowledge .