NewzVille Desk
A 15-day Transliteration Capacity Building Workshop on Ayurvedic Manuscripts was conducted at the CSU Puranattukara (Guruvayoor) Campus in Thrissur, Kerala, from 12-25 January 2026. The workshop will help in preserving and advancing India’s classical medical heritage.
The workshop was organized by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, in collaboration with the Central Sanskrit University (CSU), New Delhi.
Prof. Vaidya Rabinarayan Acharya, Director General, CCRAS taking part in the valedictory function stated that the workshop was the second collaborative programme with the Central Sanskrit University under the Ayurveda Manuscript Research Initiative of CCRAS.
He noted that during the first such workshop conducted at the CSU Puri Campus in Odisha, 14 Ayurvedic manuscripts were transliterated, reflecting the continuity and expansion of this national effort.
Prof. K. K. Shine, Director of the CSU Guruvayoor Campus, along with Prof. K. Vishwanathan, reiterated the university’s commitment to future collaboration with CCRAS, particularly for the systematic preservation, scholarly processing and revival of Malayalam Ayurvedic manuscripts, which constitute a vital component of India’s regional medical heritage.
The two-week residential programme brought together 33 scholars, including 18 from Ayurveda and 15 from Sanskrit, fostering an interdisciplinary approach to manuscript studies.
The training programme include manuscriptology, palaeography, technical Ayurvedic terminology and script orientation, with specialised Lipi Parichaya sessions on Grantha and Vattezhuthu scripts.
A strong emphasis was placed on hands-on transliteration training in Grantha, Medieval Malayalam, and Vattezhuthu, enabling participants to work directly on original palm-leaf manuscripts and to generate verifiable scholarly outputs within a short time.
Dr. Parvathy G. Nair of CCRAS, Dr. V. C. Deep, In-charge of CCRAS–National Ayurveda Research Institute for Panchakarma (NARIP), along with senior officials, academicians and subject experts were also took part in the workshop.
