Meeting with Prof. Maneesh Singhal and his research group

A first meeting took place today between Prof. Maneesh Singhal and his team, and Prof. Dominik Wujastyk and members of the Suśruta Project group. The international meeting was held using Zoom, with participants in India, the USA and Canada.

The meeting discussed the collaboration between Dominik Wujastyk’s team and Maneesh Singhal’s group on the Suśruta project. Dominik’s team focuses on ancient Sanskrit manuscripts, while Maneesh’s team aims to establish a museum on Suśruta literature and develop a Suśruta research group.

The research groups plan to exchange knowledge on surgical instruments, phytochemistry, and historical contexts. Maneesh’s team includes surgeons, biotechnologists, and ayurvedic physicians, and they will work on recreating Suśruta instruments and studying veterinary medicine. Future meetings will be held to coordinate efforts and share progress.

Present:

AIIMS group: Prof. Maneesh Singhal, Aanchal Sharma, Suttee, Samad, Arjun Ganguly, Manoj Kumar Jha, Shivani Gupta, Nandini Singh Tanwar.

SS Project group: Prof. Dominik Wujastyk, Harshal Bhatt, Jason Birch, Lisa A. Brooks, Madhusudan Rimal, Tyler Neill.

The participants all introduced themselves, giving a thumbnail sketch of their respective interests in the projects.

Prof. Singhal discussed his project on science and heritage research in India, aiming to establish a museum about Suśruta literature and develop a Suśruta research group. The museum will include artifacts, reconstructions of ancient surgical instruments, 3D printed materials, paintings, and a movie, funded by the government of India.

Prof. Wujastyk discussed the old Nepalese manuscripts of the Suśrutasaṃhitā that have given us a window onto what the text looked like in the ninth century, and how it differed from what circulates today. Dr Brooks mentioned, as an example, the fact that the Nepalese version lists 21 surgical instruments while the contemporary printed editions mention only 20.

The meeting concluded with expressions of gratitude and anticipation for future collaborations.

References

• Suśruta Project websites: https://sushrutaproject1.github.io and https://sushrutaproject2.github.io.
• AIIMS Plastic Surgery department: https://www.aiims.edu/index.php/en/2016-11-08-08-48-51