A Visit to Gyan Bharatam and the Ministry of Culture, New Delhi

On 8 October 2026, three members of the Suśruta Project, Dominik Wujastyk, Jason Birch and Kenneth Zysk, spent an afternoon in New Delhi as guests of Gyan Bharatam, the Government of India’s national mission for the survey, conservation and digitisation of manuscripts.

Gyan Bharatam (Jñānabhāratam) was announced in the Union Budget for 2025–26 as a flagship programme of the Ministry of Culture. It builds on the work of the National Mission for Manuscripts, founded in 2003, and aims to document, conserve and make available more than ten million manuscripts held in libraries, institutions and private collections across India. The mission’s emblem carries the motto na hi jñānena sadṛśaṃ pavitram iha vidyate, “for nothing in this world purifies like knowledge” (Bhagavadgītā 4.38ab).

Meeting with the Secretary of the Ministry of Culture

Gyan Bharatam’s director, Dr Anirban Dash, first took us to the Ministry of Culture at Kartavya Bhavan. There we had an hour-long meeting with Shri Vivek Agarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, who has overall charge of the Gyan Bharatam mission.

The Secretary outlined the ambitious goals of the Government of India’s drive to digitise manuscripts across the country. He then listened carefully to our ideas and suggestions, drawn from our experience of working with Sanskrit medical manuscripts in Indian and international collections. He generously offered the support of Gyan Bharatam for projects that we might propose for action. We are very grateful for his time and his openness to collaboration.

Round table at Gyan Bharatam: “The Future of Manuscript Research”

After the meeting with the Secretary, we moved to the offices of Gyan Bharatam for an hour-long consultative round table on “The Future of Manuscript Research.” The session was chaired by Dr Anirban Dash, with members of the Gyan Bharatam team, and was live-streamed online.

The discussion ranged over the goals and meaning of Gyan Bharatam’s work and the importance and value of manuscript studies. Manuscripts are the primary evidence for almost everything we know about India’s intellectual history, including its medicine. The texts we read in printed editions are reconstructions from these witnesses, and their quality depends on the range and accuracy of the manuscripts consulted. A national effort to locate, catalogue and digitise manuscripts therefore directly benefits work such as ours on the Suśrutasaṃhitā and its commentaries. The session closed with questions from participants both in the room and online.

At Gyan Bharatam we were welcomed in the traditional manner with shawls and gifts of books.

We thank Dr Anirban Dash and the Gyan Bharatam team for their warm hospitality and for organising both meetings, and Shri Vivek Agarwal for his interest and encouragement. We look forward to developing proposals for collaboration in the coming months.