The Gyan Bharatam Mission – India's Bold Step Towards Unlocking Ancient Wisdom

In a world racing towards the future, where technology reshapes every aspect of our lives, India is turning back the clock to its ancient roots—not to dwell in the past, but to propel the nation forward. Enter the Gyan Bharatam Mission (GBM), a groundbreaking initiative that blends heritage with high-tech innovation. Launched on September 13, 2025, this mission isn't just about dusty scrolls and forgotten scripts; it's about reclaiming India's intellectual legacy and sharing it with the world. If you've ever wondered how a 3rd-century manuscript featuring the symbol for 'zero' could inspire tomorrow's AI breakthroughs, read on.


A Glimpse into India's Timeless Treasury

India boasts the world's largest collection of manuscripts—estimated at over 5 million—making up a staggering repository of human knowledge. These aren't mere books; they're lifelines to ancient wisdom in philosophy, science, medicine, literature, mathematics, astrology, astronomy, architecture, design, arts, and Darshana. Written in diverse scripts and languages, they lie scattered in temples, monasteries, libraries, archives, and even private homes. But time is not kind: humidity, disasters, and neglect threaten to erase this "civilizational wealth." The Gyan Bharatam Mission steps in as the guardian, ensuring these treasures endure and evolve.


From Budget Mention to Global Launch

The story begins in the Union Budget 2025-26, presented on February 1, 2025, by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She unveiled the mission as a "special effort" for the survey, documentation, and conservation of India's manuscript heritage, targeting over 1 crore (10 million) documents. This revives the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), started in 2003 under the Ministry of Culture and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). Back then, NMM had cataloged 5.5 million items, digitized 350,000, and made 100,000 available online. But, at just ₹3.5 crore annually, funding was a bottleneck for the NMM. 

Fast-forward to today: Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launched GBM on June 9, 2025, and yesterday, at the closing of the three-day International Conference on "Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage" (September 11–13, 2025, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi), he unveiled the Gyan Bharatam Portal. This hybrid event, drawing 500 delegates from around the globe, commemorates Swami Vivekananda's iconic 1893 Chicago address, symbolizing India's intellectual outreach. PM Modi emphasized blending Viraasat and Vikaas (heritage and progress) to power Viksit Bharat @2047. As scholars presented on digitalization and conservation during the conference's final sessions, the portal went live—a digital beacon for all.


The Heart of the Mission

At its core, GBM is a call to action. Here's what it promises:-

-Comprehensive Preservation and Survey: A nationwide hunt to locate, document, and protect over 10 million manuscripts from academic institutions, museums, libraries, and private collections.

-Digitalization for the Digital Age: Building a National Digital Repository with free global access. Using AI, OCR (Optical Character Recognition), blockchain for authenticity tracking, and cloud storage, it tackles diverse scripts and languages head-on.

-Global Collaboration and Protection: Partnering with international bodies—like Japan's Horyu-ji Monastery, home to 7th-century Indian texts—to reclaim and share knowledge while preventing piracy through legal frameworks.

-Igniting Education and Innovation: Turning these texts into tools for classrooms, research, and startups. For example, adapting Sanskrit poetry or Vedic mathematics to modern algorithms—aligning with Digital India pillars like DIKSHA. It's more than archiving; it's about making ancient knowledge relevant in modern universiy curriculums.


The Mission, implemented by the Ministry of Culture, invites public participation nationwide. The newly launched Gyan Bharatam Portal is the nerve centre: a multilingual hub accelerating digitalization, hosting working group presentations, and ensuring secure, AI-powered access. Eight verticals—from conservation to cultural diplomacy—guide the effort, as highlighted in yesterday's conference.


Danger from Climate Change 

Climate change poses a dire threat to ancient manuscripts. The case of Cambodia’s ancient and vast Angkor civilization is a reminder: The Khmer empire, the builder of the Angkor civilization, did not scientifically preserve their large repository of manuscripts, during their 629-year reign. After the collapse of the empire in around 1431 CE, the new regime did not care for the Khmer manuscripts, and left those unattended. In the following decades, those wooden manuscripts simply withered away due to the hot and humid climate of that region -- leaving gaps in our understanding of a great ancient civilization. GBM ensures India avoids such a fate (if such a fate ever arrives!) using cutting-edge technology to protect these treasures. 


Conclusion: GBM to Build a Legacy for Tomorrow

In an era of fleeting digital content, GBM safeguards India's soul. By digitalizing millions of ancient manuscripts, India reinforces its global knowledge leadership, revives Sanskrit (as PM Modi noted on World Sanskrit Day, August 9, 2025), and fuses tradition with tech for innovation. It's a message to the world: India's wisdom isn't history—it's the blueprint for the future. As PM Modi put it yesterday, GBM is "the voice of India’s culture, literature, and consciousness."

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