Gyan Bharatam Mission: Safeguarding India’s Intellectual Heritage

Why in the news?

Announced in Union Budget 2025-26, the Gyan Bharatam Mission aims to conserve, document, and digitize over one crore manuscripts, ensuring India’s intellectual traditions are preserved and accessible globally for research and scholarship.

Gyan Bharatam Mission: Safeguarding India’s Intellectual Heritage

Introduction to the Mission:

  • Announced in Union Budget 2025-26, the Gyan Bharatam Mission focuses on conserving, documenting, and digitizing over one crore manuscripts.
  • Manuscripts span fields such as science, mathematics, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, and arts, housed in academic institutions, museums, libraries, and private collections.

National Digital Repository and Access:

  • A key feature is the creation of a National Digital Repository of the Indian Knowledge System.
  • This aims to provide global access to rare and ancient knowledge for researchers, students, and institutions.
  • The mission centralizes India’s manuscript heritage, ensuring traditional knowledge remains relevant and accessible in the digital era.

Significance and Manuscript Characteristics:

  • Manuscripts are handwritten records, dating back at least seventy-five years, often found on palm leaves, bark, metal, or cloth.
  • They exist in languages and scripts, including Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, and Arabic.
  • The mission helps preserve India’s rich cultural and intellectual legacy, making ancient wisdom accessible to future generations and fostering further research and scholarship.

National Manuscripts Mission (NMM):

  • Launched: 2003 by the Ministry of Culture under the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA).
  • Aim: Preserve and make accessible India’s vast manuscript heritage.
  • IGNCA Established: 1987 as an autonomous institution for research and academic pursuits in the arts.
  • Manuscripts:
  • Definition: Handwritten compositions on materials like paper, bark, cloth, metal, or palm leaf.
  • Age Requirement: Must be at least 75 years old.
  • Collection: India holds an estimated 5 million manuscripts, potentially the largest collection in the world.