Traditional Medicinal KnowledgeI
ndia Strengthens Protection and Promotion of Traditional Medicinal Knowledge through TKDL and Ayush Initiatives
Posted On: 17 MAR 2026 2:47PM by PIB Delhi
The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) is a prior art database of Indian traditional knowledge established in 2001, jointly by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the then Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy (now Ministry of Ayush). The TKDL currently contains information from ancient texts related to Indian Systems of Medicine such as Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Yoga. The information existing in local languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Bhoti, etc., has been transcribed into five international languages, namely English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese in the TKDL database. A total of 519978 formulations/techniques from the Indian Systems of Medicine and Yoga practices have been transcribed in the TKDL database so far. This includes 148846 formulations/ techniques in Ayurveda, 265496 in Unani, 89403 in Siddha and 9097 in Sowa Rigpa, and 7136 in Yoga practices. This includes 2935 surgical methods, devices/ tools, therapies and dietary interventions from Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Sowa Rigpa.
Further, the Ministry of Ayush has launched Ayusoft portal that transforms classical Ayurvedic texts into an authentic knowledge repository, offering tools like:
i. Aayur Vidnyaana (Ayurvedic encyclopedia),
ii. ShabdaVedhi (glossary of Ayurvedic terms),
iii. e-Samhita (e-Books portal)
North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda & Folk Medicine Research, Pasighat is actively engaged in the documentation of Local Health Tradition research in the field of folk medicine such as Documentation and Validation of Healing Practices and Folk Medicinal Claims among Ao tribes of Mokokchung District, Nagaland, Tai Phake Tribe in North East India, Traditional Bone Setters (TBS) practices of Khasi, Garo and Jayantiya tribes of Meghalaya.
National Institute of Ayurveda (Deemed to be University), Jaipur under the aegis of Ministry of Ayush is functioning as a national nodal centre (since Dec 2020) for survey, identification, preservation, cataloguing and digitization of traditional medicinal knowledge and Ayurveda manuscripts, in libraries, private collections, temples and traditional Vaidya families. Rare Ayurvedic manuscripts written on palm leaf, handmade paper, other traditional materials and old rare ayurveda books are being digitally preserved and archived for academic and research purposes. As of today, 560 ayurveda manuscripts and 356 rare ayurveda books are digitized.
