The Ministry of Culture's Gyan Bharatam Mission has completed a National Manuscript Survey across all States and Union Territories, identifying and documenting manuscript holdings, repositories, and custodians representing diverse languages and scripts. The survey did not set district-wise targets and resulted in the documentation of over 1.19 crore manuscripts.
The mission utilizes the Gyan Bharatam Web Portal which employs AI-enabled technologies including Large Language Script Models (LLSM), Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), script recognition, semantic search, and machine-assisted translation to provide intelligent access to India's manuscript heritage. Gyan Mitram, the AI-powered knowledge interface, integrates these technologies to enable intelligent interpretation, contextualization, and exploration of manuscripts through manuscript images, transcriptions, and translations.
BharatiyaGPT features "Manuscript-to-Conversational AI" that converts manuscript heritage into AI-ready, machine-readable knowledge, providing multilingual and multimodal access including text, audio, and voice-based interaction through its "Talk to Manuscript" feature. Pandulipi Darpan is another AI-driven tool that enables users to upload or select digitized manuscript images for AI-assisted script recognition, transliteration, and translation.
Access to digitized manuscript copies is facilitated in accordance with applicable laws and the rights of custodians and rights holders. Where legally permissible, manuscripts and associated metadata may be made available for public and scholarly research through the National Digital Repository, while sensitive, restricted, or rights-protected materials may be subject to appropriate access conditions. This information was provided by Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a written reply in Lok Sabha. This content may not be financially relevant.