Beyond Digitisation
Descriptive Cataloguing and Critical Text Editing of Indic Manuscript Heritage
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This is a BIC Elsewhere Event at IIT Alumni Centre, Bengaluru
Speaker
This lecture explores the study of Indic manuscripts, examining what it takes to turn a digitised artefact into a source for reconstructing South Asia’s religious, philosophical, and cultural history. Digital images can preserve a manuscript, but can they ever truly read it?
Drawing on case studies from Nepal, India, China, and Japan, as well as discoveries from Buddhist, Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, and Jaina manuscript traditions, the lecture demonstrates how the careful study of manuscripts, through descriptive cataloguing, palaeographical and codicological analysis, and critical text editing, has transformed our understanding of South Asia’s intellectual past. It highlights the crucial role of manuscript colophons, textual criticism, and scholarly editing in recovering lost works, tracing the transmission of ideas, and revealing historical networks that would otherwise remain invisible. Over the past half-century, large-scale preservation initiatives, including the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation and Cataloguing Projects and India’s National Mission for Manuscripts and Gyan Bharatam, have safeguarded millions of manuscript folios through microfilming and digitisation. The lecture argues that the future of Indic manuscript studies lies not in digitisation alone, but in integrating digital humanities with rigorous cataloguing, critical editing, and international scholarly collaboration.
The session is preceded by a talk by Prof. K Ramasubramanian on “The Elusive Ratio and the Advent of Calculus in India” at 5pm.
BIC Elsewhere:
While the majority of our events find a home at our premises in Domlur, BIC Elsewhere represents our commitment to bringing conversations, arts, and culture directly to diverse audiences. Through this initiative, we collaborate with various venues, extending the reach of our events beyond our own space. These partnerships not only breathe life into our gatherings but also play a crucial role in cultivating an environment for the flourishing of arts and culture in the city.
In collaboration with:
Speaker
Diwakar Acharya
Professor Diwakar Acharya is a leading scholar of South Asian religious and philosophical traditions, focusing on Sanskrit textual traditions, epigraphy, and the intellectual history of early and medieval South Asia. Before Oxford (2016), he held appointments at Kyoto University, the University of Hamburg, and Nepal Sanskrit University, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Indian Philosophy (2014–2024). Distinguished for discovering, editing, and interpreting unpublished Sanskrit texts, he has contributed to the study of early Vedānta, Tantra, Vaiṣṇavism, and Śaivism, notably through his critical publication of Vācaspati Miśra’s Tattvasamīkṣā. He founded the Sanskrit Text Society and launched the open-access Journal of Sanskrit Studies.
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RSVPs closed. Thank you for your interest.
