The “National Seminar on Cataloguing, editing and Publication of Ancient Indian Manuscripts on Science and Technology” held on March 25th 28th 2019 at Bangalore [4]

The “National Seminar on Cataloguing, editing and Publication of Ancient   Indian Manuscripts on Science and Technology” held on March  25^th  28^th 2019 at Bangalore [4]

The fourth session -4.15 to 5.45 pm:   Prof. Lakshmithathachar chaired this session with the following paper presentation:

Sl. No	Name of the Presenter	Topic
1	Sri Anand Visvanathan, Research Associate, Centre for Ancient History, Jain University, Bangalore.	A Critical study of Parasara Tantra based on Manuscripts
2	Dr Y. S. Gayathri, Prof Sanskrit, Ramaiah College of Arts and Science, Bangalore.	Number System in Ancient India based on Ancient manuscripts.
3	Dr. Bama Srinivasan Post Doc Researcher Chennai	Applications of Meemamsa Theories to Information Technology – Based on Meemamsa Manuscripts

Anand evidently made his presentation on an already published book by R. N. Iyengar. He was telling that no manuscript is available, but to fill up the gap between   te Vedanga Jyotisha and Siddhantic works, he wanted this “work attributed to Parasara!” When I asked why he did not mention about “Surya Siddhanta,” he replied that it belonged to later period i.e, after 500 CE of Siddhantic period.  I pointed out that just because, the gap should be filled up, one cannot bring any work in between and date it accordingly. Because of manipulaton f one or few verses, one cannot disparage the work and its antiquity. As a Sanskrit scholar, he cannot take two stands on the Sanskrit manuscripts and dating of them, claiming one belonged to Vedic period and one to medieval period. Later Prof Thathachariyar also cautioned the paper presenter.

Parasara Tantra and the controversy around it: I also pointed out about the “Parasara manuscripts” and the business going on around in 2006-2007 period and the discussion recorded could be noted in the internet[1]. Many persons tried to buy the manuscripts available in the name of “Parasara,” as pointed out by Vedaprakash[2] on 06-09-2007, “Suddenly a lot of interest has been generated in ” Prasara Samhita / Smruti / tantra ” and there have been enquiries in the Oriental manuscripts libraries, archives and other libraries. During July-August alone, the enquiries about this particular manuscript have been tremendous. My friend at one of such Manuscript libraries informs particularly the enquiries from foreign and through Indian contacts has been specifically about it, because it reportedly contains details about  astronomy, Silpa-sastra and medicine (three-in-one). A sculptor has been hectic about acquiring it at any cost,” incidentally, he mentioned the name of R. N. Iyengar, “So in the name of Parasara, we have all sorts of Siddhantas, Samhitas and Smritis and ” Nadi sastra ” works also. There is a work ” Gnana upadesham 22 ” attributed to Parasara available (Fourth part of Gnana sasthirat-tirattu) [R. N. Iyengar can go to Tamarai Nulagam who have published some works and Vriddhacalam for Nasdi-works and see such manuscripts of Parasara]. Even westerners have started conducting courses in ” Nadi sastra ” !”.

Vedic numbers in Vedas by S. S. N. Murthy – given for illustrative purposes

Y. S. Gayathri pointed out how the numbers were mentioned in different Sanskrit manuscripts. However, she relied upon the printed book, but, did not refer to any manuscript. Anyway, as the books have been published based on the manuscripts, they can be accepted. One asked whether “zero” was mentioned in Vedas. She replied negative. I pointed out that it was mentioned in the Chanda Sutra of Pingala.

Bama Srinivasan has already published several papers on the same topic and connected issues[3]. Mimamsa, one of the school of Indian hermeneutics, deals with the interpretation of Vedic sentences, which are in the form of injunctions[4]. It categorizes Vedic statements into five groups[5]. These are:

1. Injunctive statements (Vidhi), which urge one to perform action.
2. Hymns, which are recited at the sacrifice (mantra).
3. Titles of the sacrifice (Nam adheya), which give an account of names of various sacrifices and ritual activities, categorizing paraphernalia etc.
4. Prohibitions ( edha), which prohibit a person from performing an action.
5. Corroborative statements (Arthavada), which encourage the performance of injunctive statements (Vidhi) or discourages the performance of prohibited actions (Nisedha).

She described an automatic approach for generating a sequence of tasks in the task analysis process of special instruction, offering a viable methodology to make the lives of individuals with behavioral difficulties easier by splicing and sequencing activities into simpler and complete set of tasks.

28-03-2019 – the second day technical session – 9.30 to 11.00 AM: The first session was chaired by M. D. Srinivas and the following presented their papers:

Sl. No	Name of the Presenter	Topic
1	Dr. Neeraj Sharma Prof. of Sanskrit, MLS University, Udaipur	Manuscripts on Agriculture in Sanskrit – A critical survey
2	Dr. R. Shankar Post Doctoral fellow NIAS, Bangalore	Applying the principles of Steganography and Pattern Poetry in editing faulty manuscript readings: A case study
3	Dr. Shyamsundar Sr. Professor of Anatomy, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysuru	New, low-cost, high-effect technique of “Plastination” for preservation of palm-leaf manuscripts.

Neeraj Sharma presented his paper, “Manuscripts on Agriculture in Sanskrit – A critical survey” in Hindi. He delved upon Sanskrit Krshi Shastra [संस्कृत कृषि शास्त्र] and explained. He has also written a book in Hindi on the subject. After presentation, he was asked as to whether the methods mentioned in the Sanskrit works were used in agriculture and any results were applied, he responded with few examples.

R. Shankar presented his paper, “Applying the principles of Steganography and Pattern Poetry in editing faulty manuscript readings: A case study” as to how the hidden verse in another verse can be found out with the method. Taking certain letters from one verse, another verse can be written and read. He also pointed out how verses can be written in the form of “Chakrabhanda.” I pointed out that such methods are also available in the Tamil literature, specifically, in Tamil Siddha works. If the chairman could permit, I could show some pictures, but, he declined.

Dr. Shyamsundar / Shama Sundar, in his presentation on “New, low-cost, high-effect technique of “Plastination” for preservation of palm-leaf manuscripts,” showed that how manuscripts could be plasticized i.e, covered with resin with a combination of hardener and accelerator. Such plasticizer can either be prepared by ourselves or purchased directly. For example, shoe polish can be used directly as plasticizer to impregnate manuscripts for safely and longevity.  It can last for 30 years and again, it has to plasticized. This would be cost effective, as it comes to Re.1 for one palm leaf. For valuable documents, lamination can be done.

© K. V. Ramakrishna Rao

30-03-2019

[1] https://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1418402-fwd-parasara-samhita-parasara-tantra-parasara-smriti/

[2] https://vedaprakash.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/25-siddhantic-works/

[3] Srinivasan, B., Parthasarathi, R., Prasad, B., Lingras, P., & Nevatia, R. (2011). Mimamsa Inspired Representation of Actions (MIRA). In IICAI (pp. 498-517).

[4] Srinivasan, Bama, and Ranjani Parthasarathi. “A Formalism for Action Representation Inspired by Mīmāṁsā.” Journal of Intelligent Systems 21.1 (2012): 45-77.

[5] Srinivasan, B., & Parthasarathi, R. (2013). An intelligent task analysis approach for special education based on MIRA. Journal of Applied Logic, 11(1), 137-145.

The “National Seminar on Cataloguing, editing and Publication of Ancient Indian Manuscripts on Science and Technology” held on March 25th 28th 2019 at Bangalore [2]

The “National Seminar on Cataloguing, editing and Publication of Ancient   Indian Manuscripts on Science and Technology” held on March  25^th  28^th 2019 at Bangalore [2]

5.15 to 5.40 pm prof. Khincha, Ex-Chairman at Manipal University Jaipur : keynote address given by Kincha. “Though Thatachariar invited me to present keynote address, I do not know how I am fit to be here to do so,” thus, he started and went to point out that Jaina manuscripts of 1400 years old are available. Preservation of manuscripts started long back. There a manuscripts available in the libraries of Vatican London etc. ow many manuscripts have been digitized and useful for further benefit is not known. More digitization means more funding. Digitization should give information for carrying out research s that it is useful. Advanced image techniques can be used for digitization. Charred mss, where indentations were not visible, such techniques could be used. Archimedes project[1] is used to decipher manuscripts…When characters are recognized, then, they can be subjected to machine translation. Manuscript is one time documentation, whereas, digitization can be done again and again with new techniques.

Subject of digital humanities. Digital archives of India[2] is carried on at IIT, Kharagpur. Whether these manuscripts are preserved in the manuscript form or digitized form, their usage is important. Society has to adjust with technology. Nearly 30 years were taken to adjust with the introduction of sewing machine.

5.45 to 6.05 pm – Sri Manjunatha:  Sri Manjunatha has been working with Patanjali group of Industries. He has been visiting many places and collecting manuscripts. He saw 9000 manuscripts gathering dust in the Oriental Manuscript Library, Mysuru, 6000 in Mysore palace shed, 60,000 in Banaras Hindu University, he also purchased manuscripts for research at Patanjajil Research Institute, where, 45,000 manuscripts were there. He asked the British library for taking copies, but, they refused. He got manuscript for curing cancer, but, he would not tell the source. They have developed medicine for Dengu fever. And HIV aso, they have medicine, but, the patient has to come to Haridwar and they give medicine free. They have manufactured medicine with the combination of Arjuna rishta [pathimara] with other Ayurvedic formulations, that would clear all blocks to heart. Baba Ramdev wants all research should be done in Sanskrit only, so that the westerners could not steal our knowledge, even, if they want to do that, they have to learn Sanskrit to copy. In that way Sanskrit lives. Baba is ready to buy manuscripts.

6.10 to 6.39 pm Lakhsmi Thatacharya: In his presidential speech, Lakshmi Thatacharya pointed out that it is very important to extract information from the manuscripts. To some extent in shastra University, the IIT students are made to take interest in manuscripts, as they have one paper on manuscriptology. In Kanchi University, Computer science students are reciting Sanskrit mantras, but, to what extent, they are interested in Sanskrit is not known. When he was in MIT, he asked the experts to give importance to linguistics, while researching in the recognition of characters etc. For digitization of one manuscript man years are required, if that is the case, for digitization of millions of manuscripts, the Kaliyuga is not enough to complete the job. Dating of manuscripts is done paleographical method. C 14 can also be used for dating. M.S.Dwarakadass is interested in manufacturing new alloys with the combinations given in the manuscripts. Manufacture of several alloys have been tried.  Trinetra…….is mentioned. For alloying, it is mentioned ruruka has to be added. It is nothing but bone of ass / deer. So it was also added and tried, but, e cud get only 40% success.  There have been manuscripts on stones. In one manuscript, it is given that when juice of two herbs were applied on the surface of stones, the surface becomes soft and one may write / inscribe easily and the next morning, it becomes hard. Definitely, it is good method.  There are manuscripts to control different types of fevers, however, they have not been deciphered and encoded completely to distinguish the fevers and medicines mentioned for cure.

6.40 to 6.55 pm – Sanjay Singhal:  Sanjay Singhal from Jodhpur, It and software business told his experience at the World Sanskrit Conference held at Vancouver, where 500 participated 300 from India and 200 from other countries. When parallel paper reading sessions were going on, Indian delegates were attending to Indian paper presentation session and foreigners to their session. In other words, there was a divide between these two expert groups. Western scholarship does not respect Indian scholarship. Yet, there was none to question, when foreigners were presenting papers, even, belittling Sanskrit. Thus, there has been a great divide between the Indian and non Indian Sanskrit scholarship. Thus, the inauguration function was over.

Why many people, organizations and institutions engage in the same job?: As a researcher and attending hundreds of seminars, conferences and workshops for the last 40 years, I could find that many people, organizations and institutions engage in the same job of collecting, Cataloguing, editing and Publication of Ancient   Indian Manuscripts on many subjects and evidently including that of Science and Technology, as many deal with such subjects. In Bangalore itself, dozens of organizations have been engaged in doing the same work[3]. Thus, one news go like this[4], “Thousands of ancient medical manuscripts, including several written on palm leaves centuries ago, are now available at the click of a button thanks to a decade long effort by researchers at Bengaluru’s TransDisciplinary University (TDU). Thousands of ancient medical manuscripts, including several written on palm leaves centuries ago, are now available at the click of a button thanks to a decade long effort by researchers at Bengaluru’s TransDisciplinary University (TDU).”In spite of the fact that the invading hoards looted, burned, destroyed and carried away crores of manuscript, that still, 50,000,000 mss are available proves the fact that Indians have been recording their past in the mass for many years, as these are only copies or reprinted books of the old ones.

27-03-2019- Mss seminar -N. V. Prasada Rao, M. J. Nagarajan, H. S. Sudharshan

27-03-2019- Mss seminar -N. V. Prasada Rao, T. N. Sudharshan. M. J. Nagarajan, H. S. Sudharshan

27-03-2019- Mss seminar -audience – centre from the stage

27-03-2019- Mss seminar -my bag.audience. LHS

View of the audience RHS from the stage

Academic Sessions Session 1 – 27-03-2019: 9.30 to 11.00 AM: The technical session actually started on 27^th with the paper presentation of the following: with the Chairperson: Prof. Ch. N V Prasada Rao,  Retd. Prof. AP chaired the session and theme was “Manuscripts on Medical Sciences”.

Sl. No. Name of the Presenter Topic 1 T. N. Sudharshan, Infinity Foundation, Bangalore AIyush – AI enabling the Āyurveda Ecosystem 2 Mr. M. J. Nagarajan, Independent researcher, Chennai The Manuscripts attributed to Siddhas and their Critical Study 3 H. S. Sudhsrshan, Research Associate, Centre for Ancient Histor, Jain University, Bangalore. A Critical study Vridda-gargiya-jyotisha based on manuscripts Sudharsan stressed upon the AI enabling the Āyurveda Ecosystem. The 7th World Ayurveda Congress to be held in Kolkata during December 1–4, 2016 has very apt focal theme ‘Strengthening the Ayurveda Ecosystem’. It is very heartening to note that eminent biomedical scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Secretary, Department of Health Research and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research has accepted to be Chairperson of the Organizing Committee. Already, she and AYUSH Secretary Shri Ajit Sharan have initiated AYUSH-ICMR Mission for collaborative scientific research. This is very promising example of integrative approach where confluence of traditional and modern systems of knowledge can strengthen the Ayurveda ecosystem to shape the future global health. The establishment of AYUSH independent ministry has a commitment towards strengthening the AYUSH ecosystem. Health problems involving chronic diseases, non communicable diseases etc, there is a scope for complementary as well as preferential choice of any system including Ayurveda. There are a large number of clinical setups in national/state Ayurveda institutions, but the quality publication outcome is low. In the present article, being a scientist and science manager, I have just summarized my opinion to strengthen and growth of Ayurveda. Development of special validation methods for Ayurveda research based on Ayurveda principle is an hour of need. Randomized controlled trials on the use of new innovations are needed in Ayurveda. To strengthen Ayurveda, interdisciplinary approach may prove beneficial. Value addition based synergy and partnerships with ICMR/DBT/DST/ICAR would be beneficial for the growth of Ayurveda[5].   © K. V. Ramakrishna Rao 30-03-2019

[1] The Archimedes Project aims to develop model interactive environments for scholarly research on the history of mechanics and engineering from antiquity to the Renaissance. It is designed to integrate research and knowledge dissemination in new ways and to serve as a proof-of-concept project for open digital libraries on topics in the history of science.  http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/

[2] http://nationalarchives.nic.in/ and http://www.ndpp.in/digitalarchive/

[3] Economic Times, From Palm leaves to Computers – ancient medical scripts turn digital, By Bharat Joshi, ET Bureau, Updated: Jun 30, 2016, 10.34 AM IST.

[4] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/from-palm-leaves-to-computers-ancient-medical-scripts-turn-digital/articleshow/52984142.cms

[5] Katoch, V. M. “Planning action for strengthening the ecosystem for Ayurvedic research.” Journal of Ayurveda and integrative medicine 9.4 (2018): 248-249.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0975947618310210

[6]  Susarla, Sai, Parag Deshmukh, and K. Gopinath. Architectural Considerations for Scalable Indic Document Analytics.,

[7] http://cse.iitkgp.ac.in/resgrp/cnerg/sclws/papers/susarla.pdf.

[8] Sarvadevabhatla, Ravi Kiran, and R. Venkatesh Babu. Category-Epitomes: Discriminatively Minimalist Representations for Object Categories. arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.00082, 2015.

[9] Sarvadevabhatla, Ravi Kiran, Sudharshan Suresh, and R. Venkatesh Babu. “Object category understanding via eye fixations on freehand sketches.” IEEE Transactions on Image Processing 26.5 (2017): 2508-2518.

[10] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.06554.pdf