The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, New Delhi does the task of collection, revival and retrieval of ancient manuscripts and books of Ayush systems. The NIIMH, Hyderabad maintains medico-historical library which functions as a referral library. This Library is maintained with two objectives:

1. Promotion of knowledge of history of medicine amongst medical students, teachers, interested public.
2. Promotion of Research into the History of medicine in India during the Ancient, Medieval and Modern period and elucidation of the inter-relations between the Evolution of Medicine in India and in other centers of civilization in ancient and medieval times.

The library contains approximately 10384 books (out of which 448 are rare books) on different aspects and branches of History of Medicine and the collection includes several classical texts of Ayush systems and European medicine which includes some early editions. This library possesses 285 Manuscripts (Palm leaf/paper) out of which, 173 belongs to Ayurveda; 106 to Unani System of Medicine and 06 of Siddha system of medicine. The institute also maintains digital repository of 2700 medical manuscripts and 1335 rare books collected from different manuscript repositories, State Museums, Academic Institutions, Libraries and personal collections across South India, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. Out of these 2700 digital manuscripts; 1335 belongs to Ayurveda; 542 to Unani; 598 to Siddha; 49 to Yoga and 176 to other topics. Further, 1679 manuscripts/rare books have been digitalized under the project entitled “Survey, Cataloguing and Digitalized inventory of Medical Manuscripts of Eastern India (Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar) and 770 Manuscripts have been digitalized under the project entitled “Survey, Cataloguing and Digitalized inventory of Medical Manuscripts of North-East India” by the CCRAS.

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, New Delhi undertakes editing of transliteration, transcription, translation, publication of manuscripts and rare books of ancient and medieval period for wider dissemination and global readership. Similarly, the Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) has also deciphered ancient Siddha literatures originally available in Tamil Prose and translated them to Tamil and English language. Various National Level institutes and Research Councils under Ministry of Ayush publish Journal on regular basis for wider dissemination of research outcomes.

The Ministry of Ayush, Government of India has National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage (NIIMH), Hyderabad as a unit under the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) with a mandate of

1. 1. Literary Research and Documentation
   2. Revival and retrieval of texts from ancient manuscripts and rare books
   3. Search and Collection of information, descriptive notes, editing and publication of rare medical manuscripts/books on Ayush.
   4. Documentation
   5. Ayurveda Encyclopedia
   6. Museum on History of Medicine
   7. Referral library on Ayush Systems of Medicine and modern medicine.
   8. Ayush Research Portal
   9. CCRAS-Research Management Information System
   10. National Ayush Morbidity and Standardized Terminologies Electronic (NAMASTE)- Portal.
   11. Development of W.H.O International Terminologies of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani.
   12. Development of SNOMED CT National Extension for Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani.

Apart from this Institute, all five Research Councils under Ministry of Ayush also conducts Literary Research as a part of their research mandate.

This information was given by Minister of Ayush Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

***

SK