Amrita IKS Centre for Ayurveda, Vyākaraṇa, and Darśana

The proposed project plan envisages interdisciplinary research within the domain of Indian Knowledge Systems (Āyurveda, Darśanas, and Vyākaraṇa) as well as with relevant modern scientific disciplines (Health Sciences, Medical Research, Textual Criticism). It will thus focus on nurturing the ecosystem of an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge creation characteristic of traditional learning in a modern university’s academic environment. This project will enable the dissemination of the rich scientific heritage of India as a health-conscious culture by systematization and exposition of health-related knowledge in non-Ayurvedic Sanskrit literature. This project will help to preserve traditional knowledge in original form by bringing out a critical edition of selected portions of Aṣṭādhyāyi. Critical edition of monumental works like Aṣṭādhyāyi is essential to promote serious scholarly research. This work can also serve as an impetus for other scholars in India to work on critical editions of Sanskrit texts and fill the much-needed gap in nurturing original Indian contributions to textual criticism of classical Indian literature. To develop IKS in a manner relevant to contemporary society, we need a research methodology that includes modern research methods but is also adapted to the epistemological and ontological framework of IKS. This project will formulate a research methodology derived from Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, and Sāṅkhya Darśanas that is integrated with modern scientific research methodologies and applicable to IKS like Āyurveda.