Government Research Initiatives: Institutions under Ministry of Ayush Engaged in Extensive Study and Preservation of Ancient Medical Texts, Manuscripts, and Knowledge Systems in Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF AYUSH
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 215
TO BE ANSWERED ON 02nd February, 2024
“Traditional Medicinal Knowledge”
215. MS. DEBASREE CHAUDHURI:
Will the Minister of AYUSH be pleased to state:
(a) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to collate India’s rich history and legacy of traditional medicinal knowledge and conduct research to understand their authenticity;
(b) whether the Government has collected medical books authored in Ancient and Medieval periods in India;
(c) if so, whether they are being decoded with the help of modern medical researchers; and
(d) if so, whether the Government has any plans to start a journal on traditional medicinal knowledge which will help to collect information and also suppress those who misuse the brand of traditional treatment and medicines?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF AYUSH
(SHRI SARBANANDA SONOWAL)
(a) Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), New Delhi; National Institute of Sowa Rigpa (NISR), Leh; Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA), Jamnagar; National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur; North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy (NEIAH), Shillong; All India Institute of Ayuveda (AIIA), New Delhi and North Eastern institute of Ayurveda and Folk Medicine Research (NEIAFMR), Pasighat under ambit of Ministry of Ayush are engaged in various types of research (experimental, systemic review, cohort, clinical, literary etc.), and documentation; revival and retrieval of text from ancient manuscripts and rare books; development of new Ayurvedic medicines; repositioning and revalidating existing Ayurvedic medicines and systematic research, documentation and validation of traditional folk medicine and health practices. National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage, Hyderabad under CCRAS, has developed two web portals viz AYUSH Manuscripts Advanced Repository (AMAR) portal and the Showcase of Ayurvedic Historical Imprints (SAHI) portal, for providing structured metadata along with a description of contents of various manuscripts pertaining to Ayush System of medicine and for virtual collection of validated primary evidences of Ayurvedic practice from antiquity till date, respectively.
The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) and Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) are conducting literary research programme to collate history of traditional medicinal knowledge and also conduct research. The ancient classical text of Unani Medicine written originally in Arabic/Persian are tendered into Indian/foreign languages.
(b) NISR has collected medical books authored in ancient India. The total number of books is 24 in Tibetan Buddhist Canon, Stangyur. ITRA’s central library has almost 7000+ manuscripts in which 500+ are related to Indian traditional medicine. ITRA has also digitalized 500+ manuscripts which are available at public domain. NIA has collected 300 old works in the form of Ayurveda manuscripts written in Ancient India and Medieval period which are digitalized. CCRAS has undertaken various projects as a part of the acquisition, cataloguing, digitization and publication of manuscripts under the central sector scheme of the Ministry of Ayush. The Council has digitalized more than 5000 manuscripts. CCRUM has collected medical books authored in ancient and medieval period from different libraries of the country. Further, to prevent exploitation and to protect Indian traditional knowledge at Patent Offices worldwide, Ministry of Ayush under joint collaboration with Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had taken a pioneering initiative and formed the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) in 2001. The information from the ancient texts of medicine and health existing in local languages have been digitized in five international languages, namely, English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese in the TKDL database as prior art. The database currently contains more than 4.5 lakh formulations/ practices transcribed from texts of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Yoga.
(c) Comparative study of Ancient medical literature in Bhoti language with available Sanskrit text is presently going on in NISR. Ayurveda principles mentioned in the books are constantly being re-validated by ITRA with various researches and getting published in peer reviewed journals. Four
(4) of the collective digitalized Manuscripts have been decoded by NIA as per modern research parameters. CCRAS has undertaken clinical studies to evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of Ayurvedic classical formulations in various disease conditions. Various clinical, medicinal and pharmacological researches conducted by NEIAH in Ayush, are done in the lines of the knowledge of the various ancient and medieval treatises. CCRUM is decoding the literature with the help of modern scientific tools.
ITRA is running a very reputed journal called AYU – (A Quarterly Peer Reviewed Journal of Research in Ayurveda). CCRAS is publishing 3 Journals periodically viz journal of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (JRAS), journal of Drug Research in Ayurvdic Sciences (JDRAS) and journal of Indian Medical Heritage (JIMH). NEIAH also publishes AYUHOM, a bi- annual journal on traditional knowledge and related to research in Ayurveda and Homoeopathy. AIIA is publishing two journals namely Journal of Ayurveda Case Reports (AyuCaRe) and the International Journal of Ayurveda Research (IJAR) wherein research articles are published, helping in popularizing Ayurveda globally. Based on the traditional medicinal knowledge, CCRUM is also publishing two quarterly journals namely Hippocratic Journal of Unani Medicine(English) and Jahan-e-Tib (Urdu).
नोट :- हमारे वेबसाइट www.indiangovtscheme.com पर ऐसी जानकारी रोजाना आती रहती है, तो आप ऐसी ही सरकारी योजनाओं की जानकारी पाने के लिए हमारे वेबसाइट www.indiangovtscheme.com से जुड़े रहे।
