Samhita

‘SAMHiTA: South Asian Manuscript Histories and Textual Archive’ is a project to survey, document, and make accessible manuscripts from the subcontinent that are housed in international collections. ‘SAMHiTA’ is Sanskrit for ‘compilation’ or ‘compendium’, and the aim is to consolidate information and fill gaps where needed, to make manuscripts available online, and to explore their contents through talks, exhibitions and workshops. SAMHiTA is supported by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India, and steered by Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan (Executive Director, IIC-International Research Division).
In SAMHiTA’s first phase (2022–2023), IIC collaborated on cataloguing and digitisation with repositories in Denmark, France, Nepal and the U.K., and developed a portal hosting images and descriptions of 1,100 manuscripts. Another 3,000 manuscripts from the South Asian neighbourhood, Europe and the USA will be added in Phase-II (2025–2026).
Programmes convened under SAMHiTA include a lecture series, ‘Kriti-SAMHiTA: The Plurality of Indian Knowledge Systems’; a master class, ‘Introduction to Manuscript Studies’ (25–26 October 2023); and exhibitions: ‘Evam Vadati Pustakam: Manuscripts tell their Stories’ (13–28 September 2023), ‘“Tazkirat al-Safar”: Manuscripts and Encounters across Cultures’ (17–26 October 2024), ‘The Mathematical Sciences: South Asia’s Contributions’ (4–14 September 2025), and ‘Shunya: The Power of Zero’ (9–14 October 2025).
In September 2025, IIC convened a conference, ‘South Asia’s Manuscript Traditions and Mathematical Contributions’, in collaboration with the Centre for Traditional Knowledge Systems and Skills (CTIKS), IIT-Bombay. Prof. Manjul Bhargava delivered the Keynote Address and Prof. M.D. Srinivas the Valedictory Address.
 

To access DigiLib, please use the following links:

 https://samhita.iicdelhi.in