write an assignment on any indian traditional knowledge

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Ancient Indian Knowledge Systems and their Relevance Today – With an Emphasis on Arthaśāstra

“We owe a lot to the ancient Indians, teaching us how to count. Without which most modern scientific discoveries would have been impossible” ~ Albert Einstein

Indian civilisation has accorded immense importance to knowledge — its amazingly vast body of intellectual texts, the world’s largest collection of manuscripts, its attested tradition of texts, thinkers, and schools in so many domains of knowledge. In Srimad Bhagavad Gita, 4.33,37-38, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that knowledge is the great purifier and liberator of the self. India’s knowledge tradition is ancient and uninterrupted like the flow of the river Ganga, from the Vedas (Upanishads) to Sri Aurobindo, knowledge has been at the centre of all inquiry.

The entire body of organised knowledge is divided into two sets in the Mundakopanisad — pars vidya and apara vidya (Mundakopanisad, 1.1.4), knowledge of the ultimate principle, paramatma or Brahman i.e., the metaphysical domain, and knowledge that is secondary to how one grasps aksara-Brahman i.e., worldly knowledge. Accordingly, a distinction is made between jnana and vijnana , the knowledge of facts of the perceptible world. Over time, knowledge of different domains has been institutionalised into disciplines, or vidya and crafts, or kala . Indian disciplinary formations include fields as diverse as philosophy, architecture, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, metrics, sociology ( dharmasastra ), economy and polity ( arthaśāstra ), ethics ( nitishastra ), geography, logic, military science, weaponry, agriculture, mining, trade and commerce, metallurgy, mining, shipbuilding, medicine, poetics, biology, and veterinary science. In each of these, a continuous and cumulative series of texts continues to be available despite the widespread loss and historically recorded destruction.

Tradition mentions 18 major vidyas , or theoretical disciplines; and 64 kalas , applied or vocational disciplines, crafts. The 18 vidyas are: the four Vedas, the four subsidiary Vedas ( Ayurveda – medicine, Dhanurveda – weaponry, Gandharvaveda – music and Silpa – architecture), Purana, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Dharmasastra and Vedanga, the six auxiliary sciences, phonetics, grammar, metre, astronomy, ritual, and philology — these formed the basis of the 18 sciences in ancient India. As far as the applied sciences are concerned, there are competing enumerations of 64. [i]

The first thing to note is the constructivist dimension of Indian thought. At one time in its intellectual history, from 1000 BCE to almost CE 600, the Indian mind, it appears, was deeply immersed in empire-building, both of the terra firma and the terra cognita . Few cultures can show such wide-ranging, structured systems of ideas in almost all spheres of human life as witnessed in India during this phase. This led to the generation of a vast stock of ideas, which imprinted itself on the Indian mind making it naturally reflective and ideational.

The ancient Indian masters of politics – Kautilya, Bhīṣma, or Vidura – always followed the path of realpolitik over political ideologies. However, there were definite principles and theories upon which the foundation of the Classical Indian polity was based. The specific vidya or branch of Indian knowledge systems dedicated to the discussions of those principles, theories, and experience-based prescriptions was called dandaniti , the other three vidyas being ānvīkṣikī , trayī , and vārtā . This four-fold division is mentioned in Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra 1.2.1 (Kangle 1960). Each of the vidyas has one or more lineage of masters who have created multiple schools of thought, thus preserving, expanding, and proliferating the Indian knowledge systems. For dandaniti , the traditionally celebrated masters or acaryas are Bṛhaspati, Śukra, Uśanas, Bhīṣma, Kauṭilya, Kāmandaka, to name a few.

Among these masters, Bhisma’s teachings throughout the Shanti Parva and the Anushasana Parva of Vyasa’s Mahābhārata stand out as an exhaustive commentary on this unique paradigm of assimilating and practicing power, polity, politics, and administration. In the extent of its treatment of dandaniti , it is paralleled only by the Arthaśāstra. [ii]

It is now accepted that western criteria are not the sole benchmark by which other knowledge systems should be evaluated. While the term ‘traditional’ often implies ‘primitive’ or ‘outdated’, many of the traditional sciences and technologies were quite advanced [iii] even by present-day standards and better adapted to unique local conditions and needs than their ‘modern’ alternatives.

The United Nations defines ‘Traditional Knowledge Systems’ as:

“Traditional knowledge or local knowledge is a record of human achievement in comprehending the complexities of life and survival in often unfriendly environments. Traditional knowledge, which may be technical, social, organisational, or cultural was obtained as part of the great human experiment of survival and development.” [iv]

Laura Nader describes the purpose of studying Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS): “The point is to open up people’s minds to other ways of looking and questioning, to change knowledge attitudes, to reframe the organisation of science — to formulate a way of thinking globally about traditions.”

Modern science perhaps dates to Newton’s times. But Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS) date since more than 2 million years, when Homo habilis started making his tools and interacting with nature [v] . Since the dawn of history, different peoples have contributed to different branches of science and technology, often in a manner involving interactive contacts across cultures separated by large distances. This interactive influence is becoming clearer as the vast extent of global trade and cultural migration across vast distances is being recognised by researchers.

Not only in the field of dandaniti and rajadharma , the Indian civilisation also had a strong tradition of science and technology. Ancient India was a land of sages and seers as well as a land of scholars and scientists [vi] . Research has shown that from making the best steel in the world to teaching the world to count, India actively contributed to the field of science and technology centuries before modern laboratories were established. Many theories and techniques discovered by the ancient Indians have created and strengthened the fundamentals of modern science and technology. However, the vast and significant contributions made by the Indian sub-continent have been ignored. The British colonisers could never accept the fact that Indians were highly civilised even in the third millennium BCE when the British were still in a barbarian stage. Such acknowledgement would destroy the civilising mission of Europe that provided the intellectual justification for colonisation.

British Indologists did not study TKS, except to quietly document them as systems competing with their own and to facilitate the transfer of technology into Britain’s industrial revolution [vii] . What was found valuable was quickly appropriated, and its Indian manufacturers were forced out of business, and this was in many instances justified as civilising them. Meanwhile, a new history of India was fabricated to ensure that present and future generations of mentally colonised people would believe in the inferiority of their ancient knowledge and the superiority of the western ‘modern’ knowledge. This has been called ‘Macaulayism’, named after Lord Macaulay, who successfully championed this colonial strategy from the 1830s. 3

Arthaśāstra

Kautilya (also known as Chanakya or Vishnugupta) was the Chief Minister and the brain behind King Chandra Gupta Maurya (317-293 BCE), which led to consolidation of the Mauryan empire and ushered in the Golden Age of India. It also put an end to the threat by the successors of King Alexander. The strategy helped in uniting the whole Indian sub-continent and sowed the seeds for the concept of the Indian nation. The Mauryan Empire not only spread across the sub-continent but extended in the west till the Persian border and to Myanmar (erstwhile Burma) in the east. The strategy propounded by Kautilya was the treatise Arthaśāstra, a comprehensive compendium of the art of ruling a kingdom and defeating one’s enemies. Verse 1.1.19 states that “this work easy to learn and understand, precise in doctrine, sense and wordiness, has been composed by Kautilya” lays to rest doubts about the authorship of this treatise. Moreover, Kautilya states right at the beginning that Arthaśāstra is a compendium of similar treatises written by earlier teachers. Subsequent works like Kamandaka’s Nitisara, Dandin’s Dashakumaracharita, Vishakhadatta’s Mudrarakshasha, and Banabhatta’s Kadambari give credence to the traditional Arthaśāstra’s dating and authorship. [viii]

The Arthaśāstra was very influential in ancient India up to the 12 th century CE, after which it faded away. The text, however, was rediscovered in 1904 by Dr R Shama Shastri and was published in English in 1915.

Dr RP Kangle (Kangle 1960) in his study, “The Kautilya Arthaśāstra”, points out on the relevance of Kautilya in the modern era, “We still have the same distrust of one nation by another, the same pursuit of its interest by every nation tempered only by the considerations of expediency, the same effort to secure alliances with the same disregard of them in self-interest”. It is difficult to see how rivalry and the struggle for supremacy between nations can be avoided or how the teachings of Arthaśāstra based on these basic facts can ever become superfluous. Historically, neither the formation of the League of Nations nor later the United Nations Organization has transformed the world as envisaged. Hence, the Arthaśāstra and its basic tenets would continue to remain relevant in the foreseeable future. [ix]

The Arthaśāstra is a vast compendium comprising 15 books, which are divided into 150 chapters, 180 sections and 6000 shlokas. The Sanskrit meaning of Arth is wealth, but Kautilya’s meaning encompasses a much wider canvas. The wealth of a nation has two major pillars – its territory and its subjects. The treatise is essentially a treatise on the art of governance and covers all aspects required for a society to function internally, and as a nation-state in its relations externally. Thus, at the macro level, the topics covered a span from statecraft, war to diplomacy. At the other end of the spectrum, micromanagement of the state is also covered in detail, e.g., revenue sources and taxation, commodity prices and their taxes, standardisation of weights and measures, the organisation of the army, descriptions of forts and defences. Interestingly, there exists a very prominent mention of the Navy as it has mentioned the ‘superintendent of ships’ in Book II. Kautilya may have foreseen the importance of a seaborne force and a Navy.

Kautilya’s treatise in many ways reflects the complexity of the present world. The problems of his times continue to exist, though in a more magnified manner. Heinrich Zimmer describes it aptly, “One feels inclined to bestow new and deep respect on the genius who at that early period recognised and elucidated the basic forces and situations that were to remain perennial in the human political field. The same style of Indian thought that invented the game of chess grasped with profound insight the rules of this larger game of power. And these are rules that cannot be disregarded by anyone seriously preparing to enter the field of political action, whether for motives of rugged individualism or in order to take the world in his hands.” [x] Kautilya wasn’t just a strategist, he was a guru, a researcher, and an inspiring thought leader. He is among the foremost expert on leadership and good governance the world has known.

On military strategy, the principles enunciated by Kautilya are as relevant today as they were when they were written. He considered statecraft and military strategy to be inseparable and that warfare was an integral part of it. Military strategy has been dealt with extensively, covering various aspects of deceit, training, planning, to the conduct of actual warfare. The king is advised to assess the interests of the state before embarking on a campaign by considering eight crucial factors, which would ensure that the gains outweigh the losses. In addition to quantifiable parameters, these factors cautioned against the likelihood of revolts and rebellion in the rear, and on dangers like treachery during the campaign. Great importance was given to internal security and Kautilya emphasised that threats to national security must be eliminated at any cost. He reasoned that internal stability was essential for the economic well-being of the state.

To ensure internal and external security, Kautilya wanted a network of spies operating within the state, and in enemy states. He was among the initial proponents of intrigue, covert operations, and using diplomatic offensives as instruments of state policy. Detailed descriptions of espionage and counter-espionage activities set this work apart from any other political treatise. All these ideas are relevant and practiced even today.

Arthaśāstra laid down the prime responsibilities of a king – protection of the state from external aggression and expansion of its territory by conquest. To achieve these aims, he specified four types of warfare:

• Mantrayuddha or war by counsel through the exercise of diplomacy. This option was to be exercised when the king was in a weaker position compared to his opponent.
• Prakasayuddha or conventional warfare. This was to be used when the king is in an advantageous position.
• Kutayuddha or concealed warfare, also known as guerrilla warfare. This warfare includes psychological warfare and activating agents in the enemy camp.
• Gudayuddha or clandestine war. As the name suggests, the aim is achieved through covert means. The state does not publicly display any signs of aggression but spreads propaganda and disinformation behind enemy lines through covert means. Roger Boesche has said in his book on Arthaśāstra that “silent war is a kind of fighting that no other thinker I know of has discussed”.

For ensuring a successful military strategy, Kautilya has covered in detail the organisation and management of the army. Crucial to the success of the army, he emphasises the traits required by its leadership. Interestingly, he called for the army to function under civil supremacy and made the organisation function efficiently through smooth coordination between its components. Kautilya even went into such details as specifying 34 types of adversities that an army could face. These remain largely relevant even today, as does the basic organisation he proposed, with modifications for incorporating modern-day challenges and technology.

Kautilya was a proponent of the Realist school of thought, which advised maximising power through political rather than military means. He believed in realpolitik and that ends justified the means, including the use of ruse, deceit, cunning and subterfuge. He justifies going to war by the natural enemy concept which states that if the enemy is not eliminated, the enemy will eliminate the state/king at some point in time.

Modern warfare is not restricted to the actual conflict alone. Rather, it encompasses the military, political, economic and diplomatic aspects. War or conflict has two distinct characteristics. One represents progress and change, and the other represents constancy and permanency. On one hand, the dynamics of progress and change depend much upon a commander’s imagination, innovativeness, grasp of technology and complexity. While on the other, the Arthaśāstra is testimony to the constant and unchanging nature of war. Studies of military history show that certain features constantly recur; that certain relations between the type of action and success often produce similar results; that certain circumstances have time and again proved decisive. Past is the prologue of the future, underscores the relevance and significance of studies of military history such as propagated by the Arthaśāstra or other ancient texts. [xi]

Military strategy comprises statecraft, diplomacy, and warfare. Warfare comprises of two characteristics – one remains permanent over time, while the other keeps changing and evolving with progress and technology. The changing component also depends on the quality of leadership at any given time. The permanent characteristics of warfare are those which are studied through military history, which provides lessons for future warfare/situations. This brings out the relevance of ancient texts like Arthaśāstra in the current context.

Status of Incorporation of Ancient Texts in the Armed Forces

The Indian Army has been at the forefront in this regard and has been studying the relevance of ancient scriptures to modern warfare. The Army War College, Mhow brought out a paper in 2016 titled, “Interpreting Ancient India’s Strategic Military Culture”, which took examples from different texts to correlate aspects of statecraft and warfare in ancient and present times. The study noted that “Indigenous strategic thoughts and art of war found in the Arthaśāstra, Mahabharata and other literature are not only organic to Indian psyche but are also relevant even in today’s context”. 7 The paper also listed other scriptures for study, like Dhanurveda – which talks about military strategy, tactics, organization, and training of defence personnel, military arrays, divisions of fighting, equipment, weapons etc. The paper also studied the evolution of military strategy in India and emphasized the information warfare strategy by Kautilya, the Indian art of war and foreign policy.

Another text mentioned in the paper was the Manusmriti, where Chapter 7 dealt with statecraft, organisation and function of the army, description of forts, and firearms in the Shukraniti , authored by sage Shukracharya; and the Puranas like Agni Purana, Brahma Purana and Brahmanda Purana which deal with diplomacy and warfare. [xii]

There has been a push towards “Indianisation” of the Indian military and at the Combined Commanders Conference held in Kevadia, Gujarat, in March 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stressed greater indigenisation in the national security apparatus, including in the doctrines and customs of the Armed Forces. [xiii]

Consequently, Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff sponsored a study, “Attributes of Ancient Indian Culture and Warfare Techniques and its incorporation in present-day strategic thinking and training” at the College of Defence Management (CDM), Hyderabad. The study focused on ancient Indian texts Arthaśāstra, Bhagavad Gita and Thirukkural, and it termed Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra a “treasure trove” for the Armed Forces. The study brought out that these texts were relevant in the present-day context concerning leadership, warfare, and strategic thinking. The study, published in 2021, recommended incorporating relevant teachings from ancient Indian texts such as Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra and Bhagavad Gita into the current military training curriculum. The study has also suggested establishing an ‘Indian Culture Study Forum’ on the lines of those existing in Pakistan and China, for carrying out further research.

The study also recommended further study of ancient texts such as Manusmriti, Nitisara and Mahabharata, and to conduct periodic workshops and annual seminars on lessons from ancient Indian culture and texts for the Armed Forces. It proposed making CDM a Centre for Excellence in Indian Cultural Studies and to incorporate this knowledge as part of the formal training curriculum in military institutions.

More recently, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General MM Naravane, on 27 January 2022, while delivering the keynote address at the annual seminar on National Security at the College of Defence Management (CDM), emphasised using the vast repository of ancient knowledge available, which could enhance current strategic thinking. He stressed on the application of this knowledge in conjunction with an understanding of contemporary situations and battle-space architecture. This would aid in formulating more efficient solutions for resolving present-day challenges. He further pointed out that India must look for meeting its security concerns through realpolitik in the current geo-strategic environment. In this context, ancient Indian knowledge on statecraft and military strategy propounded millennia ago remains relevant even today. The General stressed about the need for indigenisation and atmanirbharta and said that this is equally relevant in our thought process, as it is for weapons and equipment. The requirement, therefore, is to develop Indian perspectives to meet our challenges, based on our ancient texts, moderated by current concepts. He further mentioned that the armed forces had taken up an exploratory project to examine the relevance of these texts to meet contemporary security challenges. [xiv]

China’s contributions to the global knowledge pool are widely acknowledged. Arab scholars have ensured that the important role played by Islamic countries in the transmission of ideas and inventions to Europe is common knowledge. However, in the latter case, many discoveries made in ancient India are often depicted as being of Arab origin, though the Arabs only re-transmitted to Europe what they had learnt in India. Even post-Independence, such distortion of facts continues to prevail, negatively impacting appreciation of ancient Indian knowledge. To a large extent, India’s intellectual elite continues to promote pre-colonial India as being feudalistic, superstitious, irrational and lacking scientific temper. This notion has led to an entrenched prejudice against our indigenous knowledge systems in contemporary society. A major reason for this prevalent notion is India’s flawed education system, which has subverted the projection of ancient Indian knowledge and scientific achievements in its curricula. Thus, even when facts are presented, few in the west or amongst the elitist Indians, are willing to believe them, as stereotypes about India are deeply entrenched. 3

The study of warfare in ancient Indian texts examines the permanent qualities of human nature, in the dynamic technological dimensions of military conflict. The question thus arises about Kautilya’s relevance in the present. 7 He remains an exception in the ancient, as well as in the modern world, as being the sole strategist who was able to translate his tenets into practice, leading to the creation of a huge empire. The Arthaśāstra covers every topic required for running a country, most of them continuing to be relevant even today. Shiv Shankar Menon, former National Security Advisor, during a seminar by IDSA in 2013, had summed up the relevance of Arthaśāstra by stating, “The concepts and ways of thinking that the Arthaśāstra reveals is useful, because, in many ways, the world which we face today is similar to that in which Kautilya operated in when he built the Mauryan Empire to greatness.” [xv]

Author Brief Bio : Commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, Brig AP Singh, SM*, VSM was part of the Trishna crew which circumnavigated the globe. He was the National Coach for the Optimist Class (a boat for sub-junior category in the 8 to 16-year age group) for over two decades and accompanied the national team for numerous national and international events.

References:

[i] Indian Knowledge Systems Vol 1 https://iks.iitgn.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Indian-Knowledge-Systems-Kapil-Kapoor.pdf

[ii] Principles of Dandaniti and Rajadharma in Leadership and Strategy by Sreejit Datta; AGNI (Vol XXIV, No III) Sept-Dec 2021 issue

[iii] http://www.indianscience.org/index.html

[iv] Traditional Knowledge Systems of India https://www.sanskritimagazine.com/india/traditional-knowledge-systems-of-india/

[v] https://orientviews.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/how-colonial-india-destroyed-traditional-knowledge-systems/

[vi] https://www.thebetterindia.com/63119/ancient-india-science-technology/

[vii] https://orientviews.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/how-colonial-india-destroyed-traditional-knowledge-systems/

[viii] The Arthaśāstra – A Treatise on Statecraft and Military Strategy https://knowledgemerger.com/the-arthashastra/

[ix] Relevance of Arthashastra in the 21 st century http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/relevance-of-arthashastra-in-the-21st-century/

[x] Philosophies of India by Heinrich Zimmer, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1952

[xi] Impact of Arthaśāstra on Modern Warfare https://www.essaycompany.com/dissertations/history/kautilya

[xii] New marching tunes, no more pre-1947 battle honours – armed forces set to get more ‘Indian’ https://theprint.in/india/new-marching-tunes-no-more-pre-1947-battle-honours-armed-forces-set-to-get-more-indian/673013/

[xiii] Ancient Indian Warfare like Kautilya’s Arthaśāstra to be part of Indian Military Training https://therightmag.com/editors-choice/ancient-indian-war-fare-like-kautilyas-arthashastra-to-be-part-of-indian-military-training/

[xiv] Harness Ancient Indian Knowledge System to Deal with Present National Security Challenges: Army Chief https://bharatshakti.in/harness-ancient-indian-knowledge-system-to-deal-with-present-national-security-challenges-army-chief/

[xv] Relevance of Arthshastra in the 21 st Century http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/relevance-of-arthashastra-in-the-21st-century/

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• Hinduism, Indian culture, Vedic Science, Yoga, Spirituality, India

Traditional Knowledge Systems of India

It is now recognized that western criteria are not the sole benchmark by which other cultural knowledge should be evaluated. While the term ‘traditional’ sometimes carries the connotation of ‘pre-modern’ in the sense of ‘primitive’ or ‘outdated’, many of the traditional sciences and technologies were in fact quite advanced even by western standards as well as better adapted to unique local conditions and needs than their later ‘modern’ substitutes. In countries with ancient cultural traditions, the folk and elite science were taken as part of the same unified legacy, without any hegemonic categorizations.

However, modernization has homogenized various solutions, and this loss of ideas is similar to the destruction of biodiversity. Colonizers systematically derogated, exterminated or undermined the local traditional science, technology and crafts of the lands and people they plundered, because of their intellectual arrogance, and also to control and appropriate the economic means of production and the social means of organization.

Modern societies created hegemonic categories of science verses magic, technology verses superstitions etc., which were arbitrary and contrived. But many anthropologists who have recently worked with so-called ‘primitive’ peoples have been surprised to learn of some of their highly evolved and sophisticated technologies. The term ‘Traditional Knowledge System’ was thus coined by anthropologists as a scientific system which has its own validity, in contradistinction to ‘modern’ science.

The United Nations University proposal defines ‘Traditional Knowledge Systems’ as follows:

“Traditional knowledge or ‘local knowledge’ is a record of human achievement in comprehending the complexities of life and survival in often unfriendly environments. Traditional knowledge, which may be technical, social, organizational, or cultural was obtained as part of the great human experiment of survival and development.”

Laura Nader describes the purpose of studying Traditional Knowledge Systems (TKS): “The point is to open up people’s minds to other ways of looking and questioning, to change attitudes about knowledge, to reframe the organization of science — to formulate a way of thinking globally about traditions.”

Historical Background

Modern science can perhaps be dated to Newton’s times. But Traditional Knowledge Systems date from more than 2 million years, when Homo habilis started making his tools and interacting with nature. Since the dawn of history, different peoples have contributed to different branches of science and technology, often in a manner involving interactive contacts across cultures separated by large distances. This interactive influence is becoming clearer as the vast extent of global trade and cultural migration across large distances is being properly recognized by researchers.

However, one finds that generally the history of science as commonly taught is mostly Eurocentric. It typically consists of two phases: It starts with Greece, neglecting the influences of others upon Greece. Then it ‘fast forwards’ many centuries to the Enlightenment period around 1500, to claim modern science as an exclusively European triumph, by neglecting the influence of others, especially India, upon the European Renaissance and Enlightenment. The European Dark Ages is presumed to be dark worldwide, when in fact, the rest of the world thrived with innovation and prosperity while Europe was at the peripheries until the conquest of America in 1492.

Thanks to especially the work of Joseph Needham, China’s contributions to global knowledge have recently become known to a wide range of scholars. Even more recently, thanks largely to Arab scholars, the important role of Islamic empires in the transmission of ideas into Europe has become better appreciated. However, in the latter case, many discoveries and innovations of India, as acknowledged by the Arab translators themselves, are often depicted as being of Arab origin, when in fact, the Arabs often retransmitted what they had learnt from India over to Europe.

Therefore, the vast and significant contributions made by the Indian sub-continent have been widely ignored. The British colonizers could never accept the fact that Indians were highly civilized even in the third millennium BC, when the British were still in a barbarian stage. Such acknowledgment would destroy the civilizing mission of Europe that was the intellectual premise for colonialization.

British Indologists did not study TKS, except to quietly document them as systems competing with their own, and to facilitate the transfer of technology into Britain’s industrial revolution. What was found valuable was quickly appropriated (see examples below), and its Indian manufacturers were forced out of business, and this was in many instances justified as civilizing them. Meanwhile, a new history of India was fabricated to ensure that present and future generations of mentally colonized people would believe in the inherent inferiority of their own traditional knowledge and in the superiority of the colonizers’ ‘modern’ knowledge. This has been called Macaulayism, named after Lord Macaulay who successfully championed this strategy of Britain most emphatically starting in the 1830s.

This has created a climate in which entrenched prejudice against TKS still persists in contemporary society. For example, according to TKS activist Madhu Kishwar, India’s government today continues to make many TKS illegal or impossible to practice. Even after independence, many British laws against TKS have continued, even though their original intent was to destroy India’s massive domestic industry and foreign trade and to replace them with Britain’s industrial revolution. It is significant to note that today less than 10% of India’s labor works in the ‘organized sector’, namely as employees of a company. The remaining 90% are individual freelancers, contract laborers, private entrepreneurs, and so on, many of whom still practice their traditional trades.

However, given the perpetuation of colonial laws that render much of their work illegal, they are highly vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation, corruption, and abuse. The descendents of India’s traditional knowledge workers, who built massive cities, technologies, and dominated world trade for centuries, are today de-legitimized in their own country under a democratic government. Many of today’s poor jatis, such as textile, masonry, and metal workers, were at one time the guilds that supplied the world with so many and varied industrial items.

It is important to note that amongst all the conquered and colonized civilizations of the Old World, India is unique in the following respect: Its wealth was industrial and created by its workers’ ingenuity and labor. In all other instances, such as the Native Americans, the plunder by the colonizers was mainly of land, gold and other natural assets. But in India’s case, the colonizers had a windfall of extraordinary profit margins from control of India’s exports, taxation of India’s economic production, and eventually the transfer of technology and production to the colonizer’s home. This comprised the immense transfer of wealth out of India.

From being the world’s major exporting economy (along with China), India was reduced to an importer of goods; from being the source of much of the economic capital that funded Britain’s industrial revolution, it became one of the biggest debtor nations; from its envied status as the wealthiest nation, it became a land synonymous with poverty; and from the nation with a large number of prestigious centers of higher education that attracted the cream of foreign students from Eurasia, it became the land with the highest number of illiterate persons. This remains a major untold story. The education system’s subversion of India’s TKS in its history and social studies curricula is a major factor for the stereotyping about India. Even when told of these things, few westerners and elitist Indians are willing to believe them, as the prejudices about India are too deeply entrenched.

The Global Problem Today

Westernized living is unachievable by billions of poor humans, because the capital required simply does not exist in the world, and the trickle down effect is too slow to reach the bottom tier where most of humanity lives.

Western civilization depends upon inequality — there must be cheap labor ‘somewhere else’, and cheap natural resources purchasable from somewhere, without regard to the big picture of world society or global ecology. This practical necessity of the present-day global capitalist system conflicts with the equal rights of states and persons long theorized and promoted. All sorts of reasons are offered against such drastic proposals as opening all borders and allowing free competition among all available laborers, contradicting the ‘freedom’ position so popular in theory.

The western economic development model demands ‘growth’ to sustain valuations in the stock markets, and growth cannot be indefinite. A steady state economy in zero growth equilibrium would devastate the wealth of the west, since the financial models are predicated on growth.

Even if the above obstacles could be overcome and the world’s six billion persons were to achieve western lifestyle, it would be unsustainable for the planet’s natural resources to sustain.

When Gandhi was asked whether he would like India to develop a lifestyle similar to England’s, his reply may be paraphrased as follows: The British had to plunder the Earth to achieve their lifestyle. Given India’s much larger population, it would require the plunder of many planets to achieve the same.

If the idealized lifestyle is unavailable to all humanity, then on what basis (morally, intellectually, and in terms of practical enforcement) do a few countries hope to sustain their superiority over others so as to maintain such a lifestyle? The point is that employing TKS is an imperative for humanity at large, while reducing global dependence on inequitable and resource draining ‘advanced’ knowledge systems.

We have to study, preserve, and revive the Traditional Knowledge Systems for the economic betterment of the world in a holistic manner, as these technologies are eco-friendly and allow sustainable growth without harming the environment. India’s scientific heritage needs to be brought to the attention of the educated world, so that we can replace the Eurocentric history of science and technology with an honest globalization of ideas. This goal requires generations of new research in these fields, compilation of existing data, and dissemination through books, seminars, websites, articles, films, etc.

Indian Contributions to Global Science

Civil Engineering:  The Indus-Sarasvati Civilization was the world’s first to build planned towns, with underground drainage, civil sanitation, hydraulic engineering, and air-cooling architecture. Oven baked bricks were invented in India in approximately 4,000 BC. From complex Harappan towns to Delhi’s Qutub Minar and other large projects, India’s indigenous technologies were very sophisticated in design, planning, water supply, traffic flow, natural air conditioning, complex stonework, and construction engineering.

Textiles:  India’s textile exports were legendary. Roman archives contain official complaints about massive cash drainage because of imports of fine Indian textiles. One of the earliest industries relocated from India to Britain was in textiles, and it became the first major success of the Industrial Revolution, with Britain replacing India as the world’s leading textile exporter. Many of the machines built by Britain used Indian designs that had been improved over long periods. Meanwhile, India’s textile manufacturer’s were de-licensed, even tortured in some cases, over-taxed, regulated, etc., to ‘civilize’ them into virtual extinction.

Shipping and Ship Building:  India participated in the earliest known ocean based trading systems. Regarding more recent centuries, it is known to scholars but not to the general public that Vasco da Gama’s ships were captained by a Gujarati sailor, and much of Europe’s ‘discovery’ of navigation was in fact an appropriation of pre-existing navigation in the Indian Ocean, that had been a thriving trade system for centuries before Europeans ‘discovered’ it. Some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated ships were built in India and China. The compass and other navigation tools were already in use at the time. (‘Nav’ is the Sanskrit word for boat, and is the root word in ‘navigation’, and in ‘navy’, although etymology is not a reliable proof of origin.)

Water Harvesting Systems:  Scientists estimate that there were 1.3 million man-made water lakes and ponds across India, some as large as 250 square miles. These are now being rediscovered using satellite imagery. These enabled most of the rain water to be harvested and used for irrigation, drinking, etc. till the following year’s rainfall. Village organizations managed these resources, but this decentralized management was dismantled during the colonial period, when tax collection, cash expropriation, and legal enforcements became the primary function of the new governance appointed by the British. Recently, thousands of these ‘talabs’ have been restored, and this has resulted in a re-emergence of abundant water year round in many places. (This is a very different approach compared to the massive modern dams built in the name of progress, that have devastated the lives of millions.)

Forest Management:  Many interesting findings have recently come out about the way forests and trees were managed by each village and a careful method applied to harvest medicines, firewood, and building material in accordance with natural renewal rates. There is now a database being built of these ‘sacred groves’ across India. Again, it’s a story of an economic asset falling into disuse and abuse because of dismantling the local governance and uprooting respect for traditional systems in general. Massive logging by the British to export India’s timber to fund the two world wars and other civilizing programs of the empire are never mentioned when scholars try to explain India’s current ecological disasters. The local populations had been quite sophisticated in managing their ecology until they were dis-empowered.

Farming Techniques:  India’s agricultural production was historically large and sustained a huge population compared to other parts of the world. Surpluses were stored for use in a drought year. But the British turned this industry into a cash cow, exporting massive amounts of harvests even during shortages, so as to maximize the cash expropriation. This caused tens of millions to die of starvation while at the same time India’s food production was exported at unprecedented rates to generate cash. Also, traditional non-chemical based pesticides have been recently revived in India with excellent results, replacing Union Carbide’s products in certain markets.

Traditional Medicine:  This is now a well-known and respected field. Much re-legitimizing of Indian medicine has already been done, thanks to many western labs and scientists. Many multinationals no longer denigrate traditional medicine and have in fact been trying to secure patents on Indian medicine without acknowledging the source.

Mathematics, Logic and Linguistics:  Besides other sciences, Indians developed advanced math, including the concept of zero, the base-ten decimal system now in use worldwide, and many important trigonometry and algebra formulae. They made several astronomical discoveries. Diverse schools of logic and philosophy proliferated. India’s Panini is acknowledged as the founder of linguistics, and his Sanskrit grammar is still the most complete and sophisticated of any language in the world.

There were numerous other indigenous Indian industries. India’s manufactured goods were highly prized around the world. We must evaluate the historical importance of these TKS based on their economic value for their time, when their importance could be compared to today’s high tech industry. India’s own English educated elite should be made aware of this to shed their Macaulayite inferiority complexes. Furthermore, the development, refinement and extension of TKS offer potential benefits capable of resolving or diminishing some of the inequities in modern societies worldwide.

Folk Science

Besides the above examples of Indian contributions to the very foundations of so-called ‘western’ science, another category of Traditional Knowledge Systems is non-literate folk science. Western science as a whole has condemned and ignored anything that it did not either appropriate or develop, as being magic and superstition. However, in countries such as India that have cultural continuity, ancient traditions survive with a rich legacy of folk science.

In North America and Australia, where original populations have been more than decimated, such continuity of folk tradition was disrupted. In Western nations with large colonies in the Old and New Worlds, such knowledge systems were looked down upon. It is this prejudice that subverts the importance of folk science, and ridicules it as superstition. The process of contrasting western science with folk knowledge systems extends to the demarcation of knowledge systems in different categories of science versus religion, rational versus magical, and so on. But we need to insist that these western imposed hegemonic categories are contrived and artificial.

Western science seldom realized that non-literate folk science preserves the wisdom gained through millennia of experience, direct observation, and has been transmitted by word of mouth. Development projects based solely on new technologies are pushing the Traditional Knowledge Systems towards extinction. This traditional wisdom of humankind needs to be preserved and used for our survival.

Westernized ‘experts’ go to non-literate cultures assuming them to be ‘knowledge blanks’ which need to be programmed with modern science and technology. Ramkrishnan, the renowned ecologist, humbly admitted that the ecological management practiced today by the tribes of the northeastern states of India is far superior to anything he could teach them. A good example in this regard is the alder (Alnus nepalensis), which has been cultivated in the jhum (shifting cultivation) fields by the Khonoma farmers in Nagaland for centuries. It has multiple usages for the farmers, since it is a nitrogen-fixing tree and helps to retain the soil fertility. Its leaves are used as fodder and fertilizer, and it is also utilized as timber. One could cite numerous such examples. Unfortunately, many plants which the tribes traditionally cultivated for specific benefits have now disappeared in the name of progress.

The vast majority of modern medicines patented by western pharmaceutical firms are based on tropical plants. The most common method to select candidates for detailed testing has been for western firms to scout tropical societies, seek out established ‘folk’ remedies, and to subject these to ‘western scientific legitimizing’. In many cases, patents owned by multinationals are largely for isolating the active ingredients in a lab, and going through rigorous protocols of testing and patent filing.

While this is an important and expensive task, and deserves credit, these are seldom independent discoveries from scratch. Never has the society that has truly discovered it through centuries of empirical testing and trial and error received any recognition, much less any share of royalty. India’s recent fights in international courts, over western patents of its traditional intellectual property in agriculture and medicine, have brought much needed publicity for this arena.

Colin Scott writes: “With the upsurge of multidisciplinary interest in ‘traditional ecological knowledge’, models explicitly held by indigenous people in areas as diverse as forestry, fisheries, and physical geography are being paid increasing attention by western science specialists, who have in some cases established extremely productive long-term dialogues with local experts. The idea that local experts are often better informed than their western peers is at last receiving significant acknowledgment beyond the boundaries of anthropology.”

But in too many cases, western scholars reduce India’s experts to ‘native informants’ destined to live below the glass ceiling: the pandit as native informant to the western Sanskritist; the poor woman in Rajasthan as native informant to the western feminist seeking to cure her of her tradition; the herbal farmer as native informant to the western pharmaceutical firm appropriating medicines for patents; etc. Given their poverty in modern times, these ‘native informants’ dish out what the western scholar expects to hear in order to fit his/her model, because in return they receive gifts, rewards, compensation, recognition, and even trips and visas in many cases.

Rarely have western scholars acknowledged India’s knowledge bearers as fellow scientists and equal partners, as co-authors or as co-panelists. This competitive obsession to make ‘original’ discoveries and to put one’s name on publications has exacerbated the tendency to appropriate with one hand, while denigrating the source with other hand so as to hide the plagiarism. We have referred to this as ‘academic arson’.

Rituals as Knowledge Transmitters

Villagers in remote areas like Uttaranchal have events called ‘Jagars’, in which the Jagaria sends the Dangaria into a sort of trance. The Dangaria then helps sort out problems, provides remedies for ailments, resolves social conflicts of the village society etc. One could dismiss this as superstition; but this is also considered a traditional method of reaching the unconscious. Does the Jagaria use his spiritual powers to reach and tap the unconscious region of the mind of the Dangaria? Or, as propounded by Vaclav Havel, did these rituals represent the attempts of ancient humans to come to terms with the unknown, the non-rational, and the unconscious parts of our beings? Were these devices useful to invoke lost memories of the ancient past?

We are, therefore, not willing to dismiss Jagar as some mumbo-jumbo, but a phenomenon worth scientific investigation. This should be an important scientific research connecting Traditional Knowledge Systems to Inner Sciences. Ironically, from Jung onwards, many westerners have studied and appropriated these traditional ‘inner sciences’, renamed and repackaged them. Meanwhile, the original discoverers and practitioners have been dismissed as primitive societies awaiting cure by westernization.

Myths and Legends:

Myths and legends sometimes represent the attempts of our ancestors to explain the scientific observations that they made about the world around them and transmitted to the future. They chose different models to interpret the observations, but the observations were empirical. Let us compare some of the old legends with modern scientific observations about the geological history of the Indian subcontinent. We will discuss three examples, and each could be seen as fiction or hard fact or some combination of both:

1) The geology of Kashmir (India) has been studied for more than 150 years now. As a result of these studies, it is now known that due to the rise of the Pir Panjal range around 4 million years ago, a vast lake formed, blocking the drainage from the Himalayas. Subsequently, the river Jhelum emerged as a result of the opening of a fault near Baramula, draining out the lake about 85,000 years ago. This is accepted as the geological history of the Kashmir valley.

Now let us compare this to the old legend: In Kashmir there is a very old tradition which describes a vast lake, called Satisara, in the valley in very ancient times. Kalhana, a poet chronicler, wrote his book Rajatarangini, or ‘The River of Kings’, in 1150 AD. In this book, he mentions an ancient lake (Satisara) giving a reference from a still earlier text, Nilamata Purana.

Aurel Stein (1961), who translated Rajatarangini, describes the legend of Satisara in these words: “This legend is mentioned by Kalhana in the Introduction of his Chronicle and is related at great length inNilamata… The demon Jalodbhava who resided in this lake was invisible in his own element and refused to come out of the lake. Vishnu thereupon called upon his brother Balabhadra to drain the lake…” Ignoring the mythical struggles between gods and demons, the legend does depict an account resembling the draining out of the primeval lake.

2) The sea level on the West Coast of India, as elsewhere during the Ice Ages, was about 100 meters lower than today and started rising only after 16,000 years ago. This is the accepted eustatic history.

The related legend says that when Parasurama donated all his land to the Brahmins, the latter asked him how he could live on the land that he had already donated away. Parasurama went to the cliff on the seashore and threw his Parasu (hatchet) into the sea and the sea receded, and then he occupied the land that thus emerged. This is possibly a reference to the regression of the sea and the newly emerged land.

3) The third example is of the river Satluj, a tributary of the Indus today. In finding its new course, the Sarasvati braided into several channels. This is the accepted geology.

The relevant legend says that the holy sage Vashista wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the Sarasvati, but the river wouldn’t allow such a sage to drown himself, and broke up into hundreds of shallow channels, hence its ancient name Satadru. Unless the early author of such a legend observed the braiding process of the Satluj, he could not have imagined such a legend. This is another instance of legends coinciding with a modern geological observation.

Theorizing the possible role of myths, Scott says: “The complimentarity of the literal and the figurative help us to realize that the distinction between myth and science is not structural, but procedural… Myths in a broader, paradigmatic sense are condensed expressions of root metaphors that reflect the genius of particular knowledge traditions… Numerous studies have found that the “anthropomorphic” paradigms of egalitarian hunters and horticulturalists not only generate practical knowledge consistent with the insights of scientific ecology, but simultaneously cultivate an ethic of environmental responsibility that for western societies has proven elusive.”

The Israelis have been very successful in rediscovering many lost technologies relevant to their environment and culture by investigating their ancient myths and traditions. Through this, they have become pioneers in many processes of economic value that conventional European technology lacks.

India’s intellectual resources are not limited to (though they are limited by) its ‘Indi-genius’ doubting intellectual elite. Today, there are Indian economists, social developers, and scholars who are working hard to revitalize many TKS. Resources for research and teaching of India’s Traditional Knowledge Systems should be made available for the following reasons:

India has amongst the best cases for successful revival of TKS: It has a rich heritage still intact in this area. It has the largest documented ancient literature relevant to TKS. It has the intellectual resources to appreciate this and to implement this revival, provided the Macaulayite mental blocks could be shaken up through re-education of its governing elite. It has dire needs to diversify beyond dependence solely upon the new panacea of globalization and westernization.

India’s scientific heritage, besides its philosophical and cultural legacy, needs to be properly understood. The aim is not inspired by chauvinism, but to understand the genius of Indian civilization better. This would overhaul the current assessment of India’s potential.

To correct the portrayal of the history of science, the history of ideas, mainstream accounts of world history, anthropology and culture. This entails emphasizing to scholars and educators that TKS should be included, especially India’s achievements and contributions to world science that have been very significant but unappreciated.

To include Traditional Knowledge Systems in economic planning, because they are eco-friendly, sustainable, labor rather than capital intensive, and more available to the masses. This should be done in parallel with the top down ‘modern’ scientific development using westernized ‘globalization’, as the two should co-exist and each should be used based on its merits.

TKS and Inner Sciences, History, and Society Today

Inner Sciences:  The Inner Sciences of India have been on the one hand appropriated by the west, and on the hand have been depicted as being in conflict with the progressive, rational, and materialistic west. In fact, inner and outer realms are often viewed as opposites, that can at best be balanced because one contradicts the other. This assumes that Inner Sciences make a person and society less productive, creative, and competitive in the outer realm. However, India’s TKS are empirical evidence to demonstrate that Inner Sciences and outer development did co-exist in a mutually symbiotic relationship. This is a major reason to properly study India’s TKS.

Without removing this tension between inner and outer, it would be difficult to seriously motivate the modern world to advance in the Inner Sciences in a major way. Inner progress without the outer would be a world negating worldview, which India’s TKS record shows not to be the case in classical India. Outer progress without inner cultivation results in societies that are too materialistic, too selfish to the point of genocides and holocausts, eco-unfriendly, and dependent upon force and control for social harmony.

History:  Until the 1800s, TKS generated large scale economic productivity for Indians. It was the TKS based thriving Indian economy that attracted so many waves of invaders, culminating with the British. Traditionally, India was one of the richest regions in the world, and most Indians were neither ‘backward’ nor uneducated nor poor. Some historians have recently begun to come out with this side of the story, demonstrating that it was massive economic drainage, oppression, social re-engineering, and so forth at the hands of colonizers that made millions of ‘new poor’ over the past few centuries. This explanation yields a radically different reading of the poverty in India today. Upon acknowledging India’s traditional knowledge systems, one is forced to discard accounts of its history that essentialize its poverty and the accompanying social evils. The reality of TKS contradicts notions such as:

India was less rational and scientific than the west.

India was world negating in its outlook (which is a misreading of the Inner Sciences), and hence did not advance itself from within.

India’s civilization was mainly imported via invaders, except for its problems such as caste that were its own ‘essences’.

Indian society was socially backward (to the point of being seen as lacking in morality); hence it depends upon westernization to reform its current problems.

Society Today:  Is India a ‘developing’ society, or is it a ‘re-developing’ society? Without appreciating the TKS of a people, how could anthropologists and sociologists interpret the current condition of a society? Were they always poor, always living in polluted and socially problematic conditions as today, in which case these problems are essences? Or is there a history behind the present condition? This history should not, however, excuse the failures of fifty years of independence to deal properly with the economic and social problems that persist.

Going forward, Traditional Knowledge Systems are eco-friendly, symbiotic with the environment, and therefore can help provide a sustainable lifestyle . Since the benefits of heavy industries do not trickle down to the people below the poverty line or to so-called developing countries, a revival of traditional technologies and crafts must complement the modern ‘development’ schemes for eradication of poverty. In this regard, the distinction between elite and folk science was non-existent in ancient times: India’s advanced metallurgy and civil engineering was researched and practiced by artisan guilds.

Author: Rajiv Malhotra

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The indic knowledge tradition.

Avatans Kumar

Avatans Kumar is a columnist, public speaker, and activist. A JNU, New Delhi, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign alumnus, Avatans holds graduate degrees in Lin guistics. Avatans is a recipient of the 2021 San Francisco Press Club’s Bay Area Journalism award. LESS ... MORE

India has always been known as a ‘knowledge society’. Derived from the verbal root ‘vid’ meaning ‘to know’, the Vedas as ‘shruti’, are considered the fountainhead of what came to be known as the Indic Knowledge Tradition (IKT, also knowns as the Hindu Intellectual Tradition). According to the tradition, the ‘rishis’ composed the Vedic hymns, the mantras, out of some outworldly experience-perception. These hymns “were and are always there unchanging beyond our common world of change”, according to N Kazanas. Hence the Vedic mantras are called ‘nitya’ and ‘apaurusheya’ (eternal and not created by humans).

IKT’s contribution is immense in almost all fields of intellectual inquiry. For example, physician Sushruta describes rhinoplasty surgery in 600 BCE in his book Sushruta Samhita. Similarly, the so-called Pythagorean theorem first occurs, according to the Fields Medalist mathematician Manjul Bhargava, about 800 BCE in Bauddhayana’s Shulba Sutra. The Western world is finally recognizing the fact that the Indian mathematicians had mastered the basic mathematical algorithm of addition, subtraction, and division at least a thousand years earlier than the Europeans. The word ‘algorithm’ is associated with Al Khwarizmi, who borrowed and translated basic mathematical concepts and texts from India in his book Hisab-i-Hind. We also know now that the spread of calculus to the West was through the Kerala School of Mathematics.

We also know that Panini’s (4th century BCE) grammar ‘The Ashtadhyayi’ is the only complete, explicit, and rule-bound grammar of any human language. Additionally, ‘The Ashtadhyayi’ has several formal features that have direct parallels in computer science. Yaska’s Nirukta (7th century BCE), on the other hand, is the first serious work on etymology. Yaska was also the first scholar to treat etymology as an independent science.

Related to the primacy of the Vedas, in the IKT, was the worldview that a universe of objective realities exists precisely because it can be expressed through human languages. According to the Shatapatha Brahmana, the Supreme Consciousness ‘brahmana’ enters into this world with ‘rupa’ (form), and ‘nama’ (name) and the world extends as far as ‘rupa’ and ‘nama’ extend. This, combined with the necessity to preserve the Vedic knowledge in its pristine purity gave rise to six ancillary disciplines known as the Vedangas, literally the limbs of the Vedas. They included ‘shiksha’, ‘nirukta’, ‘vyakarana’, ‘jyotish’, ‘chhanda’, and ‘kalpa’. It is important to note that three of these six disciplines are part of what is known as the modern day discipline of Linguistics and such the Grammarians, in the IKT, are considered by many as the first among philosophers.

The IKT is marked by numerous thinkers belonging to different schools of thought who frequently engaged in philosophical disputation among themselves. For example, Nyaya realism was always (for about 12 centuries) in conflict with Buddhist phenomenalism at both epistemological as well as ontological levels. According to linguist and indologist Kapil Kapoor, “Indian thinkers were not hesitant in drawing information from all sectors of knowledge to build models characterizing “knowables” which basically constitute the world.”

The IKT operated on a conceptual interdisciplinary framework. The existence of such a framework made it possible for scholars from various fields to move to the state of epistemological harmony. This framework also made exhaustive debates among different schools of thought possible. As Kapoor puts it, “it is the tacit acceptance of and adherence to these principles and their analytical potential that allowed the emergence and development of competing schools with divergent ontologies whose disputations brought into being the science of the sources of knowledge.”

The IKT combines perception of the unity of all existence in the entire cosmos at one level with relativism and truism at the other. Armed with this world view, the IKT uses “either/or or both” logic. Contrast this with the predominant atomistic worldview that uses the “either/or” logic only. The general emphasis in the IKT seems to be on the plurality of opinions rather than on summarily rejecting and denying one or the other.

IKT may be hard to discuss and describe, especially to those trained in the Western system of education (Western, henceforth). Among the Western scholars in general, there seems to be the lack of a genuine attempt to understand a non-Western tradition in its own terms. As a result, most Western attempts to understand IKT end up being superficial, over-critical and often an enterprise in fault-finding than a purely critical academic one. Nobel laureate VS Naipaul in his India: A Wounded Civilization famously wrote that the Western attempt to enter ‘Hindu equilibrium’ may be possible for scholars at the level of ‘intellectual comprehension’. However, this understanding is not reconciled at the level of reality. “The hippies of Western Europe and the United States,” he would write, “give the illusion of having done so; but they break just at the point where Hindu begins…”

Many find discussions in the IKT vague, stale and repetitious. Many texts themselves frequently mention that their views are timeless, immortal, or entirely lacking newness. It is also common for the IKT scholars to present their texts as nothing but a restatement of earlier scholars’ point of view. Such statements are matter of stylistics rather than matters of fact. The acceptance of IKT scholar’s above statements on its face value, according to Jonathan Adelman, “would undermine the brilliance and fecundity of Indian intellectuals, reducing them to mere parrots rather than independent thoughtful, creative and constructive authors.”

While many IKT scholars may present themselves as merely providing exegesis. However, in reality, these scholars are often brilliant independent minds. The IKT scholars use exegetical process as a way of articulating their own view. It is incumbent upon the adherents of the IKT as well as the rest of the world to protect, preserve, and promote the plurality of tradition, culture, and opinion. Homogenization and the monopoly of thoughts and ideas is the sure way for humanity to enter the ‘dark ages’ all over again.

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Protecting Traditional Knowledge – the India story till date

 Vidya Dadati Vinayam, Vinaya Dadati Paatrataam I Paatratva Dhanamaapnoti, Dhanaat Dharmam Tatah Sukham II This shloka in Sanskrit means true/complete knowledge gives

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Paatratva Dhanamaapnoti, Dhanaat Dharmam Tatah Sukham II

This shloka in Sanskrit means true/complete knowledge gives discipline, from discipline comes worthiness, from worthiness one gets wealth, from wealth one does good deeds, from that comes joy.

This ancient Sanskrit proverb resonates of the power and value of knowledge. It also echoes the need for protection of traditional knowledge, a branch under intellectual property rights (IPR) that spurt on the global platform with the finalisation of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992.

A broad worded explanation of traditional knowledge is provided under Article 8(j) of the Convention, which reads as:

Traditional knowledge refers to the knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities around the world. Developed from experience gained over the centuries and adapted to the local culture and environment, traditional knowledge is transmitted orally from generation to generation. It tends to be collectively owned and takes the form of stories, songs, folklore, proverbs, cultural values, beliefs, rituals, community laws, local language, and agricultural practices, including the development of plant species and animal breeds. Sometimes it is referred to as an oral traditional for it is practiced, sung, danced, painted, carved, chanted and performed down through millennia. Traditional knowledge is mainly of a practical nature, particularly in such fields as agriculture, fisheries, health, horticulture, forestry and environmental management in general. [1]

Traditional knowledge, as opposed to common belief, is not so called because of its antiquity. It is a living body of knowledge that is developed, sustained and passed on from generation to generation within a community, and often forms part of its cultural or spiritual identity. As such, it is not easily protected by the current intellectual property system, which typically grants protection for a limited period to inventions and original works by named individuals or companies. Its living nature also means that “traditional” knowledge is not easy to define. [2]

Protecting and promoting traditional knowledge is an amalgamation of various ideas like human rights, conservation of resources, sustainable development, intellectual property rights and benefit sharing mechanism. This work looks at traditional knowledge through the lens of intellectual property ecosystem.

In term of Intellectual Property (IP) protection for traditional knowledge, two types are being sought:

(i) Defensive protection which aims to stop people outside the community from acquiring intellectual property rights over traditional knowledge. India, for example, has compiled a searchable database of traditional medicine that can be used as evidence of prior art by patent examiners when assessing patent applications. Defensive strategies might also be used to protect sacred cultural manifestations, such as sacred symbols or words from being registered as trade marks. [3]

(ii) Positive protection under which there is granting of rights that empower communities to promote their traditional knowledge, control its uses and benefit from its commercial exploitation. Some uses of traditional knowledge can be protected through the existing intellectual property system, and a number of countries have also developed specific legislation. [4]

However, the international legal system has not surfaced with an instrument for specific protection of such traditional or indigenous knowledge and even though some national laws do accord protection, this may not hold sufficient for other countries.

India—An overview of wealth

India is a mega diverse country with only 2.4% of the world’s land area, harbours 7-8% of all recorded species, including over 45,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals. Of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots, four are present in India, represented by the Himalaya, the Western Ghats, the North-East, and the Nicobar Islands. [5] Further, India is the largest producer of medicinal plants and the traditional medicinal systems found under Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani, are concepts that were developed between 2500 and 500 BC in India. [6]

That India is a biologically diverse and the traditional knowledge possessed regarding various resources, especially the medicinal system, makes it a richer nation is understood, however such the possession of such knowledge must be both protected and promoted. India has undergone many struggles in trying to safeguard her traditional knowledge. These resulted from patents granted to corporations, for knowledge that is India’s legacy. I will enunciate three popular cases that brought to the fore the supposed “stealing” of Indian traditional knowledge and access of biological resources, in contravention of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

The Neem case

A controversy that can be tagged the “first” for India, and which rose doubts about a supposedly “strict” patent system, was the granting of patent to a company W.R. Grace. The company was granted a patent in the United States and the European Union, for a formulation that held in the stable storage of azadirachtin, the active ingredient in the neem plant; it planned to use azadirachtin for its pesticidal properties. Traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda and Unani, identify antiviral and antibacterial properties of the neem tree also known as the “curer of all ailments” in Sanskrit, and prescribe the same for treating  skin diseases and as a natural pesticide. The applicant admitted in the patent application of how the pesticidal uses of neem were known and pointed out to the fact that storing azadirachtin for a longer duration is difficult. The US patent granted, covered a limited invention whereby the applicant was only given the exclusive right to use azadirachtin in the particular storage solution described in the patent.

The grant of the patent was followed by an uproar and it was challenged through re-examination and post-grant opposition proceedings before the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO), respectively. Though there was no success at the Uspto, the European Patent Office ruled in favour of the opposition stating the patent granted, lacked in novelty and inventive step.

The Turmeric case

As the USPTO and EPO were dealing with the Neem case, a similar matter was boiling; a patent was granted for “use of turmeric in wound healing” and claimed a method to heal wounds in a patient by administration of an “effective amount” of turmeric. Suman K. Das and Hari Har P. Cohly were the inventors of this patent and had later assigned the patent to the University of Mississippi.

A re-examination application was filed against the granted patent, along with nearly two dozen references, which resulted into early success. The inventors’ defence was proven weak in front of the modern commentaries on classic ayurvedic texts, extracts from Compendium of Indian Medicinal Plants and nineteenth century historical texts from the library of Hamdard University, resultantly in August 1997, the USPTO ordered revocation of the patent, which lacked novelty.

The Basmati case

Another case that created much havoc was a patent granted by the USPTO to an American company called RiceTec for “Basmati rice lines and grains”. Basmati rice is a traditionally grown aromatic variety of rice, in India and Pakistan. The grant of this patent created multitude IP issues besides that under the patent law i.e. under trade marks and geographical indications.

RiceTec had been granted patent for the invention of hybrid rice lines that combined desirable grain traits of Basmati rice with desirable plant traits; this was due to the inferior quality of Basmati rice that grew in US in comparison to the good quality Basmati rice being cultivated in northern India and Pakistan and would help in growing a better crop of Basmati rice in the western hemisphere, especially US. A re-examination request was filed, with declarations from two scientists, along with several publications on Basmati rice and the research conducted on the rice in India—one of which made the USPTO realise that core claims of RiceTec were non-obvious. This resulted into RiceTec not challenging the USPTO’s decision and reducing its twenty claims to three.

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)

In June 1999, the then Planning Commission under the Central Government constituted a “Task Force on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Medicinal Plants”. [7] One of its objectives included identification of measures to facilitate the protection of “patent rights and IPR of medicinal plants”. One among several recommendations of the Task Force, was creation of a library to ensure collation of traditional knowledge on one platform, which is available digitally and is helpful in proving to the world that traditional medicinal knowledge with India is prior art due to which, patent applications based on such knowledge will not fulfil the criteria of novelty. [8] Thus, a database of India’s traditional knowledge, took birth.

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), is a database of over 2,50,000 formulations used in traditional medicine systems in India, namely, Ayuveda, Siddha, Unani and Yoga. TKDL is a pioneer initiative of India to prevent misappropriation of country’s traditional medicinal knowledge at international patent offices on which healthcare needs of more than 70% population and livelihood of millions of people in India is dependent. [9]

The world has noted India’s move towards a defensive protection in preparing the digital library, so as to curb biopiracy and misappropriation of traditional knowledge. However, mere acknowledgement is not sufficient, rather the implementation of an equitable benefit sharing mechanism which is imperative.

In 2005, the TKDL expert group estimated that about 2000 wrong patents concerning Indian systems of medicine were being granted every year at international level, mainly due to the fact that India’s traditional medicinal knowledge which exists in local languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Tamil, etc. is neither accessible nor comprehensible for patent examiners at the international patent offices. [10]

Knowledge is wealth and traditional knowledge has immense potential to resolve man’s budding problems. Exploitation of this knowledge is extremely important but it must be coupled with protection, promotion and benefit sharing.

Traditional knowledge may be termed as the IP family’s newest member. However, the decisions on tackling this child have to be taken considering several factors, besides the (un)willingness of nations. Correctly put, the knowledge system of informal sector i.e. traditional knowledge, is often oral and not properly documented, thus non-defendable. [11] India has taken a step ahead and created a repository of its ages old knowledge, which grows periodically but at an international level the need of a legal instrument becomes increasingly urgent. The linking of traditional systems of knowledge with a modern IPR system is the question of relevance.

A sui generis law is often pitched in as a probable solution for proper protection of traditional knowledge, however till the time a legislation is formulated, policies and ideas like the National IP Policy, Digital India and Startup India can rescue the fast fading system of traditional knowledge. It will not be wrong to suggest, that in order to secure the future of species and mankind, the current generation will have to help protect a fading generation’s valuable knowledge.

* Hetvi Trivedi is Research Associate, GNLU-GUJCOST Research Centre of Excellence in IP Laws, Policies & Practices.

[1]   Convention on Biological Diversity, available at < https://www.cbd.int/traditional/intro.shtml >, last visited on 4-4-2018.

[2]   WIPO, Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property, available at < http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/briefs/tk_ip.html >, last visited on 4-4-2018 .

[3]   WIPO, Traditional Knowledge and Intellectual Property, available at < http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/briefs/tk_ip.html >, last visited on 4-4-2018.

[4]   Ibid.

[5] National Biodiversity Authority, India’s Fifth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2014, available at < http://nbaindia.org/uploaded/Biodiversityindia/5th_NationalReporttoCBD.pdf >, last visited on 4-4-2018.

[6] M.M. Pandey, Subha Rastogi and A.K.S. Rawat, Indian Traditional Ayurvedic System of Medicine and Nutritional Supplementation, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2013), available at <https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/376327/cta/>, last visited on 5-4-2018.

[7]   V.K. Gupta, An Approach for Establishing a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, 5 JIPR 307 (2000), available at < http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/26010/1/JIPR%205%286%29%20307-319.pdf >, last visited on 4-4-2018.

[8]   Prashant Reddy T., Sumathi Chandrashekaran, Create, Copy, Disrupt: India’s Intellectual Property Dilemmas, 271 (Oxford University Press 2017).

[9]   Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, available at < http://www.tkdl.res.in/tkdl/langdefault/common/Abouttkdl.asp?GL=Eng >, last visited on 4-4-2018.

[10]   Ibid.

[11]   V.K. Gupta, An Approach for Establishing a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, 5 JIPR 307 (2000), available at < http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/26010/1/JIPR%205%286%29%20307-319.pdf >, last visited on 4-4-2018.

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It’s really important to save our traditional knowledge and inherit them to our future generations.its great you stepped forward to bring this to us.ts really great to have this information. This type of data regarding to TK is rare.Thank you so much for this.

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India with its multicultural diversity and civilisational legacy, is the repository of Traditional Knowledge (TK) Systems. Through centuries, communities in India have developed a body of knowledge that is unique. The sustenance and transmission of the knowledge has largely been informal. It has been transmitted mostly through oral traditions by a large body of lay persons and also by a huge corpus of scholars and seers.

The existence and application of TK is seen in domains as varied as performing arts, fine arts and craft, textiles, health science and practices, museology, metallurgy, agriculture, horticulture, forestry and veterinary practices, natural resource management, environmental protection, architecture and housing, and customary law. In spite of its wide spread prevalence and utility, not enough attention has been paid to TK from a policy perspective. This could be due to:

• Lack of research and documentation
• Lack of infrastructure and means to combine the insights offered by TK
• The status and worth of TK specialists remains unrecognized, thereby putting them in a position of distinct disadvantage as compared to modern knowledge educators
• Adoption of a segmented approach towards research and data collection with regards to TK

Realising the need for strengthening the Mission of National Knowledge Commission for TK, the Centre for Traditional Knowledge Systems (CTKS) was established IGNOU in its 106th Board of Management vide Notification No. IG/Admn(G)/Not.2010/20 dated December 23, 2010 at the IGNOU headquarters, New Delhi.

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Indian Knowledge Tradition and Research

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India is not only a historic country but also a cremation ground. All the Rishi Munis took birth in India. If we talk about knowledge tradition, then the first word comes to our mind is ‘ Veda ’. And if the researcher wants to know about the history, then he quotes Vedas. Scholars of Indian scriptures have come into its grip and started to interpret Sanatan scriptures. Vedas include social order, policy, etc. The knowledge tradition has its own characteristics, its place of learning, its texts, and their classification. India has always been known about the knowledge tradition and a knowledge culture. Ancient civilizations are accepting India’s debt in the field of knowledge. If we talk of knowledge, it is based on language, philosophy, inescapability of knowledge, folk, Sculptures. In India, there has been an unbroken series of Acharyas, Rishis, Granthas, etc., and teaching and learning took place through gurukul system. Students learnt about Vedas , Vedangas , Smiritis and Stutis . Education was imparted orally. There was a guru–shishya tradition. From the Vedic period, the knowledge tradition was high. Be it Taxila, Nalanda or Vikramshila University. But now this is more westward tilt. Indians are getting knowledge but just to get jobs in sake of earning money. But they are losing their culture, tradition, custom and ethic. So today, there is a need to find the treasure of this knowledge hidden in ancient text to groom it and use it for human welfare. There is need to research on these texts and let India to be connected to its origin.

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Sapna Sharma (2022). Indian Knowledge Tradition and Research. In: Chandani, A., Divekar, R., Nayak, J.K. (eds) Achieving $5 Trillion Economy of India. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-7818-9_18

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India’s indigenous people: Repository of India's traditional knowledge and cultural heritage

The international community needs to appreciate that against all odds and the trauma of partition, india’s culture is composite and represents her civilizational heritage, writes amb bhaswati mukherjee (retd) for south asia monitor.

An ancient and ethnically diverse civilization, India’s pre-recorded history saw waves of invaders, settling into the vast Indo-Gangetic Northern heartland or crossing the Vindhyas to settle in the Southern peninsula. Civilizations and empires came and disappeared, a true testimony to India’s complex history. 

Recent studies identify waves of major migrations to India: from Africa to the Andaman’s 65,000 years ago, the second wave from the Zagros region of Iran 9,000 to 7,000 years ago, the 3rd wave from South-East Asia who waved to the Northeast and the last wave by the Indo-European language speaking pastoralists from the Steppes between 2000 and 1000 BC. 

Who then were India’s original inhabitants, pre-dating recorded history? Were they India’s tribal people? Should they be called India’s indigenous or is this once again a colonial construct, applied to India, ignoring her unique history? How did this confusion arise? 

Scheduled Tribes 

India today has more than 550 ancient tribes and 705 ethnic groups officially recognized constitutionally as ‘Scheduled Tribes’.  They are ethnically and racially diverse, speak different languages and have different cultural heritage. They are the repository of India’s vast traditional knowledge system, contribution to soft power and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).   

From the Harappan culture in 2500 BC, to migration of Aryans to India in 1500 BC, to the rise of the great Hindu empires in North and South India, to the Muslim invaders who eventually settled to establish great empires, these developments impacted the people as a whole, including the tribal people. What emerged was a unique composite culture, based on plurality of faith, multi-ethnicity and representing unity in diversity. 

As William Dalrymple had pertinently noted: “India has always had a strange way with her conquerors. In defeat, she beckons them in, then slowly seduces, assimilates and transforms them.” 

This narrative changed under colonialism. The British, with their notion of the ‘White Man’s burden’ fashioned India into a colony. In doing so, India was subjected for the first time to the notion that the West needed to bring civilization to primitive peoples or to destroy it where it existed. Indian self-confidence and self-esteem, their faith in the sanctity of the oral tradition, withered in the face of this challenge. It was countered by the national movement which encompassed all Indians. 

Western worldview 

Carpentier De Gourdon regrets the traditional Western interpretation of ancient societies being “deeply flawed”, to be corrected or replaced by a new order, leading to the Enlightenment of 18th century Europe.  He concludes that progress, when devoid of any reference to eternal or traditional values “cannot be trusted as a guiding principle”. This Western interpretation prevails till today. 

Most Indians at the time were unaware that very different developments were occurring in other parts of the world. The mass migration and settlement of White European people to the Americas, Australia and New Zealand did lead to eviction of the original inhabitants, their slaughter or their total marginalization. The story of the indigenous people came to be written in blood, the children of a lesser God. It amounted to a total erasure of their history. It was a human tragedy of epic proportions. 

In contrast, there was no mass migration of British or Europeans to India. Indians were not displaced as were the indigenous in the Americas. The British were a small minority and ruled India through the British Indian army where sepoys heavily outnumbered European officers. 

India and her people suffered greatly from the onslaught of colonialism, poverty, famine and finally partition, along with independence. When power was transferred to the ‘natives’, it covered the entire Indian population. In order to inclusively develop, post 1947, the many socially and economically backward groups including tribal communities in different States of India, several provisions were made in India’s Constitution. 

Tribal challenges 

Despite such constitutional protection including the Fifth Schedule for Central India and the Sixth List for certain areas of Northeast India, India’s tribals face many challenges. Rapid modernization in an increasingly globalized world threatens to diminish and destroy this culture. 

After decolonization in the 50s, the plight of the indigenous due to European settlement was raised in the UN and specialized agencies.  The West, adept at divide and rule, tried to argue that great injustice had been done to India’s ‘original inhabitants’, the tribal people. This ambivalence and confusion prevail till today. Efforts were made to confuse our tribal communities about their history and to cast doubt on their equal position along with other Indians in post-colonial independent India. 

Indian sociologist Andre Beteille lamented: “Intellectual disciplines are so organized today that concepts and terms that emerge in response to a particular experience in a particular part of the world travel to other parts of it where they lodge themselves and acquire a life of their own”. 

These counter-currents remain despite our clear and unambiguous declared position in the UN.  India voted in favour of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on the condition that after independence all Indians are ‘Indigenous’.  

India’s explanation of the vote encapsulates her position. “While the Declaration did not define what constitutes indigenous peoples, the issue of indigenous rights pertained to peoples in independent countries who were regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country or a geographical region which the country belonged, at the time of conquest or colonization or establishment of present State boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retained some or all of their socio-economic, cultural and political institutions.” 

India’s indigenous 

Today, this issue has a disturbing connotation for our national and internal security. Multilaterally, we have underlined that the historical context of the issue of indigenous peoples was with respect to protection of “native workers” in overseas colonies, who were alienated from their rights to their ancestral lands, territories, resources, history and culture and does not apply to India. Equally, it cannot apply to an ancient and ethnically diverse culture and civilization like ours. 

More troubling, the principle of “self-identification” can be confused with self-determination to the detriment of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a violation of the undermining the UN Charter. 

Our arguments are is often sidestepped or ignored by the West. This is unfortunate but can be combated. What is of greater concern is why the indifference of the vast Indian public to the importance of integrating marginalized communities into the national mainstream!  Many lack a proper understanding of the great contribution of various tribal communities to India’s culture and civilization. 

India’s traditional culture consists of an astounding wealth of living patterns and modes of heritage. Through a history of changing settlements and political power, as well as adaption to colonial rule, India’s living cultural heritage is shaped by centuries of adaptation, re-creation and co-existence. The intangible cultural heritage of India finds expression in the ideas, practices, beliefs and values shared by communities across centuries. It forms part of the collective memory of the nation. 

The international community needs to appreciate that against all odds and the trauma of partition, India’s culture is composite and represents her civilizational heritage. Indians too need to work at all levels to ensure inclusive development. Only then will we be able to silence the voices of dissenters globally and in the United Nations. 

India's philosopher-monk Swami Vivekananda’s depiction of India says it all: “India for thousands of years peacefully existed…. We of all nations have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live”. 

Poet Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s inspirational message resonates today: 

“India represents the wealth of mind which is for all.   We acknowledge India’s obligation to offer to others the hospitality of her best culture  And India’s right to accept from others their best.” 

(The author is a retired ambassador and an expert on heritage issues.  Views are personal) 

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Call for Papers: Contribution of Indian Knowledge Traditions to the World

Human beings have been creating and passing on information to future generations for several millennia. In the creation, preservation, and propagation of information, some have seen traditions of knowledge by geography, way of life, religion, language, and more. One such geography is the Indian subcontinent, roughly coterminous with what has been described as Bhāratavarṣa in no less than 63 verses [1] of the critical edition of the Indian epic the Mahābhārata. [2] The Indian subcontinent has been the birthplace of many knowledge traditions, including Vedic, Śramaṇa (which includes Jaina and Bauddha), and others that have survived several millennia into the present. Some of these traditions share fundamental ideas but also disagree about other ideas, and yet coexist largely peacefully in contemporary India. An early pre-Buddhist listing of some of the fields of knowledge known in the Indian subcontinent well before the ‘common era’ is found in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad VII.1.2:

“...Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Atharva-Veda as the fourth Veda, the epics (Puranas) and ancient lore (Itihasa) as the fifth, the Veda of the Vedas (i.e. grammar), the rules of the sacrifices by which the Manes are gratified, the science of numbers, the science of portents, the science of time, logic, ethics, etymology, Brahma-vidya (i.e. the science of pronunciation, ceremonials, prosody, etc.), the science of elemental spirits, the science of weapons, astronomy, the science of serpents and the fine arts. All this I know, venerable Sir.” [4]

By at least around the middle of the first millennium of the ‘common era’, texts indigenous to the Indian subcontinent attested words that can be seen as terms for systems of knowledge that encompassed several fields. Two of such attested systems of knowledge are the Caturdaśa [(14) { veda (4), vedāṅga (6), upāṅga (4)}] and the Aṣṭādaśa [(18) { veda (4), vedāṅga  (6), upāṅga  (4), upaveda (4)}] Vidyāsthānaṃ -s [5] , found in Yājñavalkya Smṛti (1.3) and Viṣṇupurāṇa (3.6.28-29) respectively. Not surprisingly, Jessica Frazier has seen a high degree of formalization in the methods of Vedic learning and has noticed its role in inspiring what she has called “effectively India’s first universities”:

“ The highly formalized methods of Vedic learning helped to inspire the formation of large teaching centres – effectively India’s first universities . Taxila, Nālandā and Vikramaśīla are the most famous of these, the latter two surviving until the thirteenth century. Such universities taught not only the Vedic texts and the ritual that complemented them, but also the various theoretical disciplines that provided a foundation for these two pillars, the Vedāngas, or sciences (literally ‘limbs’ or ‘supports’), of the Vedas. These included linguistics, reasoning ( hetu , literally, ‘causes’), medicine, law, astronomy and city-planning. Śāstras attempted to collect and represent distinct fields of knowledge, creating a cultural template of classic ‘disciplines’ such as law and ethics ( dharma-śāstra ), economics and governance ( artha-śāstra ), drama and aesthetics (nāṭya-śāstra), religious architecture ( vāstu-śāstra ) and of course grammar . In both the Sūtras and more explanatory Śāstras, diverse views were considered and assimilated to a single relatively coherent system, systematically explained. Not unlike the first Islamic universities that developed in North Africa and those that grew from them in Christian Europe, these universities saw a general understanding of the world as a necessary context for religious study and salvation.” [Frazier, 2011, p. 34] {Emphasis added}

Well developed knowledge centres in the Indian subcontinent attracted seekers (Yijing and Xuanzang amongst others) from different parts of the world across millennia.

The succession of sages who played a significant role in the creation, preservation, and propagation of knowledge traditions in the Indian subcontinent had been singled out for effusive praise and also specified as the raison d'être for naming the land itself as Yindu by the Chinese, a name that continues till date in China:

Before the oldest amongst universities still extant in Europe (Bologna in Italy) was founded, Said Al-Andalusi (1029-1070 CE), in his book Tabaqāt al-ʼUmam (The Categories of Nations), had written what has been translated as the following about Indians, their wisdom and fairness, and their proficiency in some branches of knowledge seen earlier, and more:

“ The first nation [to have cultivated science] is India . This is a powerful nation having a large population, and a rich kingdom [possession]. India is known for the wisdom of its people. Over many centuries, all the kings of the past have recognized the ability of the Indians in all the branches of knowledge . … The Indians, as known to all nations for many centuries, are the metal [essence)] of wisdom, the source of fairness and objectivity. They are peoples of sublime pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare inventions. … To their credit, the Indians have made great strides in the study of numbers and of geometry . They have acquired immense information and reached the zenith in their knowledge of the movements of the stars [astronomy] and the secrets of the skies [astrology] as well as other mathematical studies . After all that, they have surpassed all the other peoples in their knowledge of medical science and the strengths of various drugs, the characteristics of compounds and the peculiarities of substances .Their kings are known for their good moral principles, their wise decisions , and their perfect methods of exercising authority. … That which has reached us from the discoveries of their clear thinking and the marvels of their inventions is [the game of] chess . The Indians have, in the construction of its cells, its double numbers, its symbols and secrets, reached the forefront of knowledge .” [7] {Emphasis added}

That the formal Government of India Ministry-of-Education (MoE) led recovery from these blows has been excruciatingly slow can be gauged from the fact that it was not until 2012, 65 years after the British left India in 1947,  that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decided to finally introduce a course at the secondary education level, still only an elective though, focused singularly on Indian knowledge traditions and practices  titled ' Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India ' for classes XI and XII. By 2015 [11] , two volumes [12] were published for this course that included 21 modules: Astronomy (Vol I 1-30), Chemistry (Vol I 31-58), Indian Literatures (Vol I 59-132), Indian Philosophical Systems (Vol I 133-162), Indian Traditional Knowledge on Environment Conservation (Vol I 163-188), Life Sciences 1-3 { Ayurveda, The Historical Evolution of Medical Tradition in Ancient India, Plant and Animal Science in India } (Vol I 189-246), Mathematics in India (Vol I 247-286), Metallurgy in India (Vol I 287-316), Music in India (Vol I 317-342), Theater and Drama in India (Vol I 343-375), Agriculture (Vol II 1-24), Architecture (Vol II 25-83), Dance (Vol II 84-120), Education (Vol II 121-149), Ethics (Vol II 150-169), Martial Arts (Vol II 170-195), Language and Grammar (Vol II 196-228), Other Technologies - A Survey (Vol II 229-258), Painting (Vol II 259-288), Society State and Polity (Vol II 289-340), and Trade (Vol II 341-382) [13] .

Amongst the most substantive MoE led/supported initiatives after 2015 include:

• Initiation of a semester course on Introduction to Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) at IIT Gandhinagar in 2015-16 . Their website shows a year-wise break up of this course starting from 2016 until 2022
• All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)’s inclusion of “ Essence of Indian Knowledge Tradition ” (Section 8.4 in p. 123) [14] as a mandatory non-credit course in 2018
• The inclusion of section 4.6.9 titled Knowledge of India (pp. 98-99) in the draft of the National Education Policy released in 2019 which contained the terminology Indian Knowledge Systems four times in it [15]
• The confirmation of the inclusion of a section (4.27) on the Knowledge of India (p. 16) in the National Education Policy released in July 2020. [16] ““Knowledge of India” will include knowledge from ancient India and its contributions to modern India and its successes and challenges, and a clear sense of India’s future aspirations with regard to education, health, environment, etc. These elements will be incorporated in an accurate and scientific manner throughout the school curriculum wherever relevant; in particular, Indian Knowledge Systems, including tribal knowledge and indigenous and traditional ways of learning, will be covered and included in   mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, yoga, architecture, medicine, agriculture, engineering, linguistics, literature, sports, games, as well as in governance, polity, conservation. An  engaging course on Indian Knowledge Systems will also be available to students in secondary school as an elective  Specific courses in tribal ethno-medicinal practices, forest management, traditional (organic) crop cultivation, natural farming, etc. will also be made available.Competitions may be held in schools for learning various topics and subjects through fun and indigenous games. Video documentaries on inspirational luminaries of India, ancient and modern, in science and beyond, will be shown at appropriate points throughout the school curriculum. Students will be encouraged to visit different States as part of cultural exchange programmes.” (p. 16) {Emphasis added}
• Indian Knowledge System - An Overview
• The Vedic Corpus
• Philosophical Systems
• Wisdom through the Ages
• Linguistics
• Number System and Units of Measurement
• Knowledge Framework and Classification
• Mathematics
• Engineering and Technology: Metals and Metalworking
• Engineering and Technology: Other Applications
• Town planning and Architecture
• Health, Wellness and Psychology
• Governance and Public Administration
• Establishment of multiple IKS centres and approval of new research proposals in 2022 [20]
• University Grants Commission (UGC)’s Guidelines for Training of Faculty on Indian Knowledge Systems 2022 November [21]

While content about Indian Knowledge Traditions, Practices, and Systems are slowly returning to the mainstream education system in India (even as a non-elective mandatory course at the higher/secondary level still remains a desideratum), what many of these aforementioned efforts have attempted to do was to firstly rediscover, so to speak, traditional knowledge, and in some cases, demonstrate its contemporary relevance, both necessary and important vectors of activity.

Contribution of Indian Knowledge Traditions to the World, an in-person conference planned on June 15-16 (Thu, Fri) 2023 looks to go beyond the aforementioned vectors (of rediscovery and evaluation of contemporary relevance) to focus on a third: flow of traditional ideas indigenous to the Indian subcontinent from India to the rest of the world across time (from ancient to contemporary) and their impact [22] . New, previously unpublished research that can demonstrate originality in establishing indigeneity, tracing movement of ideas from the Indian subcontinent to any other part of the world, and foregrounding their contribution to any positive development there is welcome.

We invite abstracts of up to 500 words on or before the 31st of March 2023 (Fri) at [email protected] . We will notify the authors of selected abstracts by 7th of April 2023 (Fri). A Zoom call with authors of selected abstracts will be organised on the 16th of April 2023 (Sun) at IST 1900 hrs for clarifications and logistics related updates. Full papers will be due  by the 4th of June 2023 (Sun). Guidelines for paper include:

• Citation style: American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020)
• Word limit: 3000 - 5000 words [brevity and originality appreciated]
• Times New Roman, Font size 12, 1.5 line spacing

Respondents are encouraged to articulate clearly, in the course of their paper, what research questions their paper is looking to address, why those questions merit attention, and what, in the author’s view, is new in their submission. We will prioritise papers with intriguing new insights and original research.

- Megh Kalyanasundaram

End Notes [1] See verses 06010005 to 06010068 in Belvalkar, 1947, pp. 45-59 (reproduced in Kalyanasundaram, 2020c, pp. 6-8) [2] https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/pager.html?object=051   India as revealed in the Mahābhārata , Schwartzberg Atlas, v. , p. 14. Also see Map 1: Landscape in the  Nāṭyaśāstra in Suresh and Kalyanasundaram, 2022, p.14 [3] pp. 392-393 in https://ia600803.us.archive.org/14/items/12SChandogyaUpanishadWithAnandGiriTikaStateCentralLibHyd/12-S_Chandogya%20Upanishad%20with%20Anand%20Giri%20Tika_StateCentralLibHyd.pdf . See Table 3 in  Kalyanasundaram, 2020b, pp. 13-14 for comparison of 4 translations of (only) the verse (not commentary). [4] https://upanishads.org.in/upanishads/11/7/1/2 [5] By the middle of the first millennium of the common era, the word vidyāsthānaṃ was already at least a millennia old courtesy its attestation in Yāska’s Nirukta . See Kalyanasundaram, 2020a, p. 21 [6] Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts Vol I, 2014, p. 124 [7]   https://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/h_es/h_es_kumar_spain_frameset.htm [8] https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8683 Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics [9] See Lethal Assault On Learning [Singh, 2022, pp. 194-210] [10] See The Curse of Colonialism [Singh, 2022, pp. 211-232] [11] Between 1947 and 2015, some notable government led/supported initiatives related to some aspects of Indian Knowledge Traditions include:

• Sanskrit universities (esp. http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/ )  and organisations like Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) https://ignca.gov.in/ , Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) https://www.sangeetnatak.gov.in/ (amongst others)
• Indian National Science Academy’s Indian Journal of History of Science https://insa.nic.in/UI/journaldetails.aspx?AID=Mw== since 1965
• National Mission for Manuscripts https://www.namami.gov.in/history in 2003
• Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit (CISTS) at IIT Bombay https://www.hss.iitb.ac.in/en/unit-category/cists
• Vedic Heritage Portal https://vedicheritage.gov.in/

[12]  http://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/Curriculum17/SrSecondary/36%20Knowledge%20traditions%20and%20%20practices%20of%20India.pdf   Vol 1 of a textbook for CBSE's course on Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India for classes XI & XII. Co-edited with Prof. Kapil Kapoor, CBSE, New Delhi, 2013 https://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/publication/cbse/12KnowledgeTradingXI.pdf   Vol 2 of a textbook for a CBSE course for classes XI and XII. "Knowledge Traditions & Practices of India", Kapil Kapoor and Michel Danino, (eds), Vol. 2, for Class XII, CBSE, New Delhi, 2015 https://www.academia.edu/49093252/Knowledge_Traditions_and_Practices_of_India_Vol_2 [13]  The individual modules can be accessed from here:  https://cbseacademic.nic.in/publication_sqps.html [14]  https://www.aicte-india.org/sites/default/files/Vol.%20II_UG.pdf [15] https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Draft_NEP_2019_EN_Revised.pdf [16] https://www.aicte-india.org/sites/default/files/nep2020.pdf [17]  https://iksindia.org/about.php [18] 2019: https://srisriuniversity.edu.in/atmanirbhara-bharata-fdp2020/ , 2021: https://rashtram.org/faculty-development-programme/ , 2022: https://iks-iitkgp.in/fdp2022/ [19] https://www.phindia.com/Books/BookDetail/9789391818203/introduction-to-indian-knowledge-system-bhat-mahadevan-nagendra [20] See https://iksindia.org/Result_Center1.pdf   and https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/aicte-selects-15-research-proposals-for-indian-knowledge-systems-iks-check-full-list-1914826-2022-02-18 . Also see: https://hss.iitm.ac.in/ciks/about-us-2/ [21] https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5855891_Guidelines-for-Indian-Knowledge-System.pdf [22] To state the obvious: it is not claimed that such analysis of flows has not been done before this conference (see, for example, India’s Contribution to World Thought and Culture , a revised and abridged version of which was released in 2022). This conference however seeks to focus specifically on the “flow” aspect.

All links accessed on Dec 31 2022

References B, M., Bhat, V. R., & R.N., N. P. (2022). Introduction to Indian Knowledge System - Concepts and Applications . PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. https://www.phindia.com/Books/BookDetail/9789391818203/introduction-to-indian-knowledge-system-bhat-mahadevan-nagendra Belvalkar, S. K. (1947). The Bhīshmaparvan Being the sixth book of the Mahābhārata The Great Epic of India . Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. Chandra, L., Gupta, S. P., Swarup, D., & Goel, S. (Eds.). (1970). India’s Contribution to World Thought and Culture . Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107624/page/n3/mode/2up Dharampal. (2000). The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century (3rd ed., Vol. III). Other India Press. https://archive.org/details/DharampalCollectedWritingsIn5Volumes/3DharampalJiCollectedWritings-beautifultree/page/n3/mode/2up (Original work published 1983) Frazier, J. (2011). The Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies (J. Frazier, Ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group. Jha, G. (1923). The Chha’ndogya Upanishad and Sri Sankara’s Commentary (Second Part): Vol. Fourth Volume (G. Jha, Trans.). V.C. Seshacharri (Vakil, High Court, Madras) [Printed at The Indian Printing Works]. https://archive.org/details/ChandogyaUpanishadWithShankaraBhashya-EnglishTranslationPart2/page/n171/mode/2up Kalyanasundaram, M. (2020a, July). Reading Yāska’s Nirukta in 2020: jottings of consequence to the Global history of astronomy, Yāska’s chronological epoch and the Indic history of writing and knowledge systems . Academia. https://www.academia.edu/43694407/Reading_Y%C4%81skas_Nirukta_in_2020_jottings_of_consequence_to_the_Global_history_of_astronomy_Y%C4%81skas_chronological_epoch_and_the_Indic_history_of_writing_and_knowledge_systems Kalyanasundaram, M. (2020b). An analysis of some aspects of “Chronology” in “The Early Upaniṣads” and some observations of consequence to the Global History of Philosophy before c. 500 BCE. Academia . https://www.academia.edu/43761472/An_analysis_of_some_aspects_of_Chronology_in_The_Early_Upani%E1%B9%A3ads_and_some_observations_of_consequence_to_the_Global_History_of_Philosophy_before_c_500_BCE Kalyanasundaram, M. (2020c). “India that is Bharat…: One Country, Two Names” and “The Concept of Bhāratavarṣa and Its Historiographical implications”: A response. Academia . https://www.academia.edu/45303222/_India_that_is_Bharat_One_Country_Two_Names_and_The_Concept_of_Bh%C4%81ratavar%E1%B9%A3a_and_Its_Historiographical_implications_A_response Kapoor, K., & Danino, M. (Eds.). (2013). Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India Vol 1 . https://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/publication/cbse/12KnowledgeTradingXI.pdf Kapoor, K., & Danino, M. (Eds.). (2015). Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India Vol 2 . https://www.academia.edu/49093252/Knowledge_Traditions_and_Practices_of_India_Vol_2 Pāndey, U. C. (1994). YĀJÑAVALKYASMṚTI (5th ed.). Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan. https://archive.org/details/YajnavalkyaSmritiKashiSktGranthamala178HindiTikaUmeshChandraPandeyChowkhambaSanskritSansthan/page/n3/mode/2up Sa`id al-Andalusi. (2010). Science in the Medieval World: Book of the Categories of Nations (A. Kumar & S. I. Salem, Trans.). University of Texas Press. Singh, S. (2022). Revisiting the Educational Heritage of India . Vitasta. Sriram, M.S. (2008). Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics . In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8683 Suresh, P. V., & Kalyanasundaram, M. (2022). Landscape in the Nāṭyaśāstra and clues to its spatial origin: A study in 2019. In P. Jha & S. K. Mahanty (Eds.), The Recensions of Nāṭyaśāstra (pp. 139–178). National Mission for Manuscripts. Tan, C. (2018). China: A 5,000-Year Odyssey . Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd. Upreti, T. (2005). VIṢṆUMAHĀPURĀṆAM of MAHARṢI VEDAVYĀSA with Sanskrit commentary of “ĀTMAPRAKĀŚA” of ŚRĪDHARĀCĀRYA (T. Upreti, Ed.; 2nd ed., Vol. I). Parimal Publications. https://archive.org/details/vp_vol1/page/n465/mode/2up

“…Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Atharva-Veda as the fourth Veda, the epics (Puranas) and ancient lore (Itihasa) as the fifth, the Veda of the Vedas (i.e. grammar), the rules of the sacrifices by which the Manes are gratified, the science of numbers, the science of portents, the science of time, logic, ethics, etymology, Brahma-vidya (i.e. the science of pronunciation, ceremonials, prosody, etc.), the science of elemental spirits, the science of weapons, astronomy, the science of serpents and the fine arts. All this I know, venerable Sir.” [4]

The succession of sages who played a significant role in the creation, preservation, and propagation of knowledge traditions in the Indian subcontinent had been singled out for effusive praise and also specified as the raison d’être for naming the land itself as Yindu by the Chinese, a name that continues till date in China:

That the formal Government of India Ministry-of-Education (MoE) led recovery from these blows has been excruciatingly slow can be gauged from the fact that it was not until 2012, 65 years after the British left India in 1947,  that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) decided to finally introduce a course at the secondary education level, still only an elective though, focused singularly on Indian knowledge traditions and practices  titled ‘ Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India ‘ for classes XI and XII. By 2015 [11] , two volumes [12] were published for this course that included 21 modules: Astronomy (Vol I 1-30), Chemistry (Vol I 31-58), Indian Literatures (Vol I 59-132), Indian Philosophical Systems (Vol I 133-162), Indian Traditional Knowledge on Environment Conservation (Vol I 163-188), Life Sciences 1-3 { Ayurveda, The Historical Evolution of Medical Tradition in Ancient India, Plant and Animal Science in India } (Vol I 189-246), Mathematics in India (Vol I 247-286), Metallurgy in India (Vol I 287-316), Music in India (Vol I 317-342), Theater and Drama in India (Vol I 343-375), Agriculture (Vol II 1-24), Architecture (Vol II 25-83), Dance (Vol II 84-120), Education (Vol II 121-149), Ethics (Vol II 150-169), Martial Arts (Vol II 170-195), Language and Grammar (Vol II 196-228), Other Technologies – A Survey (Vol II 229-258), Painting (Vol II 259-288), Society State and Polity (Vol II 289-340), and Trade (Vol II 341-382) [13] .

• Indian Knowledge System – An Overview
• Word limit: 3000 – 5000 words [brevity and originality appreciated]

– Megh Kalyanasundaram

[12]  http://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/Curriculum17/SrSecondary/36%20Knowledge%20traditions%20and%20%20practices%20of%20India.pdf   Vol 1 of a textbook for CBSE’s course on Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India for classes XI & XII. Co-edited with Prof. Kapil Kapoor, CBSE, New Delhi, 2013 https://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/publication/cbse/12KnowledgeTradingXI.pdf   Vol 2 of a textbook for a CBSE course for classes XI and XII. “Knowledge Traditions & Practices of India”, Kapil Kapoor and Michel Danino, (eds), Vol. 2, for Class XII, CBSE, New Delhi, 2015 https://www.academia.edu/49093252/Knowledge_Traditions_and_Practices_of_India_Vol_2 [13]  The individual modules can be accessed from here:  https://cbseacademic.nic.in/publication_sqps.html [14]  https://www.aicte-india.org/sites/default/files/Vol.%20II_UG.pdf [15] https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Draft_NEP_2019_EN_Revised.pdf [16] https://www.aicte-india.org/sites/default/files/nep2020.pdf [17]  https://iksindia.org/about.php [18] 2019: https://srisriuniversity.edu.in/atmanirbhara-bharata-fdp2020/ , 2021: https://rashtram.org/faculty-development-programme/ , 2022: https://iks-iitkgp.in/fdp2022/ [19] https://www.phindia.com/Books/BookDetail/9789391818203/introduction-to-indian-knowledge-system-bhat-mahadevan-nagendra [20] See https://iksindia.org/Result_Center1.pdf   and https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/aicte-selects-15-research-proposals-for-indian-knowledge-systems-iks-check-full-list-1914826-2022-02-18 . Also see: https://hss.iitm.ac.in/ciks/about-us-2/ [21] https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5855891_Guidelines-for-Indian-Knowledge-System.pdf [22] To state the obvious: it is not claimed that such analysis of flows has not been done before this conference (see, for example, India’s Contribution to World Thought and Culture , a revised and abridged version of which was released in 2022). This conference however seeks to focus specifically on the “flow” aspect.

References B, M., Bhat, V. R., & R.N., N. P. (2022). Introduction to Indian Knowledge System – Concepts and Applications . PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. https://www.phindia.com/Books/BookDetail/9789391818203/introduction-to-indian-knowledge-system-bhat-mahadevan-nagendra Belvalkar, S. K. (1947). The Bhīshmaparvan Being the sixth book of the Mahābhārata The Great Epic of India . Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. Chandra, L., Gupta, S. P., Swarup, D., & Goel, S. (Eds.). (1970). India’s Contribution to World Thought and Culture . Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107624/page/n3/mode/2up Dharampal. (2000). The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century (3rd ed., Vol. III). Other India Press. https://archive.org/details/DharampalCollectedWritingsIn5Volumes/3DharampalJiCollectedWritings-beautifultree/page/n3/mode/2up (Original work published 1983) Frazier, J. (2011). The Continuum Companion to Hindu Studies (J. Frazier, Ed.). Continuum International Publishing Group. Jha, G. (1923). The Chha’ndogya Upanishad and Sri Sankara’s Commentary (Second Part): Vol. Fourth Volume (G. Jha, Trans.). V.C. Seshacharri (Vakil, High Court, Madras) [Printed at The Indian Printing Works]. https://archive.org/details/ChandogyaUpanishadWithShankaraBhashya-EnglishTranslationPart2/page/n171/mode/2up Kalyanasundaram, M. (2020a, July). Reading Yāska’s Nirukta in 2020: jottings of consequence to the Global history of astronomy, Yāska’s chronological epoch and the Indic history of writing and knowledge systems . Academia. https://www.academia.edu/43694407/Reading_Y%C4%81skas_Nirukta_in_2020_jottings_of_consequence_to_the_Global_history_of_astronomy_Y%C4%81skas_chronological_epoch_and_the_Indic_history_of_writing_and_knowledge_systems Kalyanasundaram, M. (2020b). An analysis of some aspects of “Chronology” in “The Early Upaniṣads” and some observations of consequence to the Global History of Philosophy before c. 500 BCE. Academia . https://www.academia.edu/43761472/An_analysis_of_some_aspects_of_Chronology_in_The_Early_Upani%E1%B9%A3ads_and_some_observations_of_consequence_to_the_Global_History_of_Philosophy_before_c_500_BCE Kalyanasundaram, M. (2020c). “India that is Bharat…: One Country, Two Names” and “The Concept of Bhāratavarṣa and Its Historiographical implications”: A response. Academia . https://www.academia.edu/45303222/_India_that_is_Bharat_One_Country_Two_Names_and_The_Concept_of_Bh%C4%81ratavar%E1%B9%A3a_and_Its_Historiographical_implications_A_response Kapoor, K., & Danino, M. (Eds.). (2013). Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India Vol 1 . https://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_material/publication/cbse/12KnowledgeTradingXI.pdf Kapoor, K., & Danino, M. (Eds.). (2015). Knowledge Traditions and Practices of India Vol 2 . https://www.academia.edu/49093252/Knowledge_Traditions_and_Practices_of_India_Vol_2 Pāndey, U. C. (1994). YĀJÑAVALKYASMṚTI (5th ed.). Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan. https://archive.org/details/YajnavalkyaSmritiKashiSktGranthamala178HindiTikaUmeshChandraPandeyChowkhambaSanskritSansthan/page/n3/mode/2up Sa`id al-Andalusi. (2010). Science in the Medieval World: Book of the Categories of Nations (A. Kumar & S. I. Salem, Trans.). University of Texas Press. Singh, S. (2022). Revisiting the Educational Heritage of India . Vitasta. Sriram, M.S. (2008). Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics . In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8683 Suresh, P. V., & Kalyanasundaram, M. (2022). Landscape in the Nāṭyaśāstra and clues to its spatial origin: A study in 2019. In P. Jha & S. K. Mahanty (Eds.), The Recensions of Nāṭyaśāstra (pp. 139–178). National Mission for Manuscripts. Tan, C. (2018). China: A 5,000-Year Odyssey . Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd. Upreti, T. (2005). VIṢṆUMAHĀPURĀṆAM of MAHARṢI VEDAVYĀSA with Sanskrit commentary of “ĀTMAPRAKĀŚA” of ŚRĪDHARĀCĀRYA (T. Upreti, Ed.; 2nd ed., Vol. I). Parimal Publications. https://archive.org/details/vp_vol1/page/n465/mode/2up

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Home » Science & Technology » Intellectual Property and Issues » Various subject matters of Intellectual Property in India » Traditional Knowledge

A collaboration – between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (Dept. of AYUSH), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare , Government of India .

There is considerable unexplored potential for developing, promoting and utilizing traditional knowledge, which is a unique endowment of India. Create a sui generis system for protection of traditional knowledge which will safeguard misappropriation of traditional knowledge as well as promote further research and development in products and services based on traditional knowledge.

The creation of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) has been a major achievement for India which has a vast pool of traditional knowledge. India has been able to thwart attempts to misappropriate its traditional knowledge. The next challenge is to use India’s strength in traditional knowledge for its effective promotion, development and utilization.

It manages a database of knowledge that exists in various local languages such as Sanskrit, Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Tamil. TKDL has also converted the database into five international languages in patent application formats.

So far, over 2 lakh medicinal formulations have been transcribed and the database is present in 30 million A4-size pages.

It has been observed that in the past years patents have been wrongly granted to traditional knowledge related inventions which do not fulfill the requirement of novelty and inventive step, particularly due to existence of relevant prior art. For instance, this has happened in the case of Turmeric, Neem, Basmati etc.

The practical obstacle underlying the issue was that patent examiners could not search relevant traditional knowledge as prior art, because they did not have access to traditional knowledge information in their classified non-patent literature. The reasons for this non-accessibility were that the Indian traditional knowledge exists in local languages such as Sanskrit, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Tamil, etc. which either was not available or not understood by patent examiners. TKDL breaks the language and format barrier and makes available this information in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese in patent application format, which is easily understandable by patent examiners. TKDL is thus a tool providing defensive protection to the rich traditional knowledge of India

A research council of AYUSH ministry has been implementing a Tribal Health Care Research Programme (THCRP) which aims at collecting information on folk medicines / traditional practices prevalent in different parts of the country besides extending health care services to tribal population.

Some success stories of TKDL –

India Foils Colgate-Palmolive Bid to Patent Nutmeg Mouthwash

In 2010, a Patent application was filed by Colgate-Palmolive Company titled “Oral compositions containing extracts of myristica fragrans and related methods”. The company claimed an oral composition comprising a combination of extracts including an extract from Myristica fragrans and a natural extract other than the extract from Myristica fragrans .

The prime issue with this application by Colgate-Palmolive is that Myristica fragrans (nutmeg) has been traditionally used in the Indian system of medicines and is used almost every single day by an average Indian, especially those residing in the country side. The Patent application by Colgate-Palmolive itself describes that Myristica fragrans (nutmeg) is known as a headache cure and a gastrointestinal drug in the Indian ancient Ayurveda, and has been used in the treatment of dyspepsia, bellyache, diarrhea and vomiting in the traditional Chinese medicine. Myristica fragrans has reportedly been used as a fruit paste and applied to teeth. An important claim of this application is “A composition according to any preceding claim, wherein the composition is a dentifrice in a form selected from the group consisting of: powder; toothpaste or dental gel; a periodontal gel; a liquid suitable for painting a dental surface; a chewing gum; a dissolvable, partially dissolvable or non-dissolvable film or strip; a bead, a wafer; a wipe or towelette; an implant; a mouthrinse, a foam, and dental floss.”

CSIR-TKDL submitted proof in the form of references from an ancient book, which said that the herb and its extracts were used for oral diseases in Indian systems of medicine. In addition, other third party observations also made submissions against the claims and the Patent application was shot down. The status of the application EP2689806 now stands cancelled.

India wins Patent war on hair loss formula

Pangaea Laboratories Limited, a UK based company had filed a Patent application in February, 2011 titled “Hair building solid agent” (EP2361602). On a close reading of the application, they come across two important pieces of information viz, the description section of the application which reads:

“The hair building solid spray agent may include one or more pharmacologically active ingredient for treating one or more of hair loss, thinning hair and skin conditions.

The pharmacologically active ingredient may be one or more of finasteride, dutasteride, spironolactone, minoxidil, nitric oxide donators, Beta-glucan, saw palmetto, resveratrol, curcumin, marine extracts, polycyanidins, superoxide dismutase, superoxide dismutase mimetics, taurine, plant sterols, pine bark extract, melatonin, green tea, caffeine, copper peptides, copper PCA, EUK-134, copper(II) 3,5-dispropylsalicylate, dimethoxy chromanol, catalase, catalase mimetics and hydrolysed lupine protein.”

As can be observed from a reading of the paragraph, there is clearly a mention of use of curcumin, pine bark and green tea among others as a pharmacologically active ingredient in the preparation of the hair loss formula.

Thus CSIR filed an objection to the application by providing the EPO with evidence from the TKDL citing the traditionla use of curcumin, pine bark and green tea in the treatment of hair loss. The third party observations submitted by CSIR can be accessed here.

Based on India’s evidence, the Patent application was finally “deemed to be withdrawn” by the applicant on 29 June 2015.

“Over 1500 yoga asanas shortlisted to thwart patenting by foreign parties ”

Another news piece making rounds these days is that TKDL is in the process of documenting over 1500 yoga postures in order to stop patenting of these postures by foreign parties. TKDL is said to believe that as many as 2,000 applications were being made internationally every year for patents on Indian systems of medicine including yoga postures, which was nothing but misappropriation of traditional Indian knowledge. But with India providing evidence to the contrary, Patent applications have had to be withdrawn in countries as varied as USA, Japan, UK, Italy, Germany, Australia, China, Cyprus, Kenya, Spain, South Korea, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

It is estimated that up to 300 million people practice yoga across the globe, with the US being the world’s largest yoga industry worth over $27 billion. Yet more than half of global yoga enthusiasts are Indians, in a country that until now lacked any organizational approach to the $80bn global industry. Lacking brand names, yoga training in India is mainly run through small independent businesses.

News sources indicate that a mind-boggling 249 patents were taken on yoga in 2004 and 2,300 in 2005 at various international Patent offices, thus implying the urgent need to incorporate these yoga aasanas into TKDL.

The above three instances are only some of the success stories of TKDL. As published by the Press Information Bureau of India, CSIR-TKDL unit till date has achieved success in about 200 cases and more, like the ones listed here, without any cost.

Besides major companies like Colgate-Palmolive and Pangaea, the other big players who have been hit by the TKDL include Nestle, L’Oreal, Avasthagen, Ranbaxy, BASF and Unilever.

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Indian Knowledge Tradition and Environment

Vineet upadhyay.

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Assistant Professor of Law at Siddhartha Law College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.

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Traditional knowledge is the information or method or process or practices about any particular science which came down to us from our forefathers in the form of customs, usages, folklore, literature, way of living, and habits. India is world’s oldest civilization encompass huge amount of traditional knowledge, which can reshape, rebuilt India’s journey towards prominence. This traditional knowledge either in respect of herbs, crafts, arts, technique or medicinal knowledge are common heritage of mankind. India which is seventh largest country of the world has three of the world biological hotspot and various national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Further various traditional knowledge evolves through the flora and fauna of the Indian biodiversity. Any patent or copyright which originates from such traditional knowledge will hamper the growth and rights of the indigenous and local communities. Therefore, these communities are against such patenting of traditional knowledge. To protect such rights over traditional knowledge Patent (Amendment) Act, 2002, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ right Act,2001 Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and were legislated by Parliament of India. This present study views India’ rich heritage in terms of traditional knowledge in its wider approach using doctrinal method.

• Biological Diversity Act
• Traditional knowledge

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International Journal of Law Management and Humanities, Volume 4, Issue 5, Page 106 - 117

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