CCRAS-NIIMH Signs MoU with Kerala Museum to Digitise Ayurveda

By Jagjagran | 17 August 2026

The National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage (NIIMH), Hyderabad — operating under the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of Ayush — has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sevadhi Museum & Indological Research Institute (SEMIRI), located at Kumaranalloor, Kottayam, Kerala. The agreement was reported on 14 August 2026.

SEMIRI is managed by the Kumaranalloor Ooranma Devaswom — the governing body of the historic Kumaranalloor Devi Temple, one of the oldest and most revered temples in Kerala. The institute holds an extraordinary collection of over 30,000 manuscripts, including temple records, palm-leaf documents, and rare medical texts from India's classical Ayurvedic tradition.

The MoU covers systematic digitisation and preparation of a descriptive catalogue of the museum's medical manuscripts. This work will be carried out under NIIMH's ongoing project titled "Collection, Digitization and Cataloguing of AYUSH Manuscripts and Rare Books."

A specialised team from NIIMH has already begun on-site digitisation work at the museum. This includes high-resolution scanning of manuscripts, translation of ancient scripts (many of which are in Grantha, Malayalam, or Sanskrit), and creation of a searchable digital archive.

CCRAS Director General Prof. Vaidya Rabinarayan Acharya emphasised that preserving such manuscripts should not be viewed simply as an archival exercise:

"These manuscripts form part of India's wider intellectual heritage — not just medical, but civilisational."

The significance of this partnership extends beyond Ayurveda. India's manuscript heritage — estimated at over 5 million surviving manuscripts across the country — is one of the world's largest documented literary corpuses. Yet a substantial portion remains undocumented, undigitised, and inaccessible to researchers. Fragile palm leaves, humidity, insect damage, and dispersed private collections have made systematic preservation an urgent challenge.

Under Prime Minister Modi's Gyan Bharatam Mission (announced in Budget 2025), the government has committed significant resources toward the survey, documentation, and preservation of India's manuscript heritage. The CCRAS-SEMIRI collaboration fits directly within this national effort.

For Ayurveda and traditional Indian medicine, digitisation opens new possibilities. Researchers worldwide will be able to access texts that were previously locked in a single temple's library. Ancient formulations, treatment protocols, and diagnostic frameworks — some describing conditions and treatments unknown to modern medicine — can now be studied, tested, and integrated with contemporary healthcare research.

The MoU is a small but meaningful step toward rescuing centuries of medical wisdom from the vulnerability of physical decay.

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