India’s learned inheritance spans medicine, mathematics, architecture, philosophy, aesthetics and literature. Its continuous transmission from ancient times was through hand-written texts in Sanskrit, Tamil, Odia, Bengali and other languages, written in scripts such as Nagari, Grantha, Sharda and Newari. SAMHiTA brings together repositories on a common platform and shares collected information through PANDiT.
SAMHiTA
Reuniting a Scattered Heritage
SAMHiTA is an initiative to create a relational database and digital archive of Indian and broadly South Asian manuscripts housed in libraries, archives and repositories outside India — through collaboration with institutional partners worldwide.
India's learned inheritance spans medicine, mathematics, architecture, philosophy, aesthetics, and literature. Its continuous transmission from ancient times was through hand-written texts in languages such as Sanskrit, Tamil, Odia, and Bengali — in scripts like Nagari, Grantha, Sharda, and Newari — written on copper plate, birch bark, parchment, and palm leaf.
From around the 2nd–3rd centuries CE, texts fanned outwards to regions like Balkh, Xinjiang, Tibet, Japan, Thailand, and Bhutan. Today, Indic manuscripts are scattered across Asia, Europe, and North America. SAMHiTA is the first attempt to bring together repositories on a common platform, sharing all collected information on PANDiT: Prosopographical Database of Indic Texts and Records.
Digital Archive & Database
Creating a relational database and open digital archive of Indic manuscripts held in repositories outside India.
Global Collaboration
Partnering with the British Library, Bodleian Oxford, BnF Paris, University of Tokyo, University of Pennsylvania and more.
PANDiT Integration
All collected information is shared on PANDiT — the Prosopographical Database of Indic Texts and Records.
Cultural Heritage Recovery
Recovering, preserving and making accessible centuries of Indian knowledge in medicine, mathematics, philosophy and the arts.
Open Access for Scholars
Consolidating dispersed manuscript information on an online platform accessible to researchers, students and curious minds.
Lecture Series & Education
The Kriti-SAMHiTA lecture series and master classes show how manuscripts unfold centuries-old knowledge traditions.