Patanjali, culture ministry tussle over rare ayurveda manuscripts
NEWDELHI: There is a tussle going on between Yoga guru Bab a Ramdev’s Divya Yo gM an dir Trust Patanjali Yogpeeth and the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), which comes under the Union ministry of culture, over access to copies of rare manuscripts on Ayurveda and Yoga.
Patanjali wants to access digital copies of the manuscript for research, but N MM doesn’ t seem to be too keen on sharing the documents, despite the intervention of its parent—the ministry of culture.
NMM director V Venkata Ramana Reddy could not be reached for comment because he went on a month-long medical leave last week.
People familiar with the matter at NMM said on condition of anonymity that R eddy’ s message to them, mentioning the intervention of the minister of culture, and asking that the manuscripts be shared, was viewed by them as more of a guideline than a direction.
NM M’ s position has been that there are copyright issues.
In August, Reddy wrote to Pat anja li :“The N MM can not use or provide to any third party the digital copies of any manuscripts without the prior permission of the manuscripts holders. We have written to the ministry regarding the ownership rights and also requested the institutes, which have been covered under the digit is at ion project, to provide their consent for making the digital data accessible to people on the website of NMM.”
Patanjali doesn’t see it that way.
It has accused the mission of spending cr or es of rupees of public money for collecting manuscripts from across India but not making any use of it in public interest. It blamed the mission of deviating from its mandate of dissemination of knowledge contained in the manuscripts .”
Acharya Balkrishna, general secretary, Patanjali Yogpeeth, said the trust has already published about two dozen research books and manual son the subject after collecting manuscripts as old as 2,000 years from various sources, including libraries and individuals.
“We have requested the N MM and the ministry multiple times that we do not want original manuscripts but copies, and only for research and publication purposes for the benefit of the people in general with no commercial use,” Balkrishna said over the phone.
“These government-run-institutions collected manuscripts and digitised the same using public money running in crores of rupees but are not allowing us access for public use. We have been trying for this for the past 4-5 years. I met the NMM’s directors too but to no avail,” he added. One of Patanjali Yogpeeth’s affiliates, Patanjali Ayurved is in the business of making and selling foods and cosmetics.
In September, after union minister of culture Mahesh Sharma intervened in favour of Pat anja li, Reddy wrote to the Manuscript Resource Centers (MRCs) and Manuscript Conservation Centers (MCCs), from where it sources manuscripts, asking them to hand over the digitised copies of manuscripts to Patanjali. The NMM sources the manuscripts from MR C sand MCCs for digitization but returns them the original manuscripts along with the DVD with digitised data after completing the work.
“The minister of culture has desired that digitized/photocopies of the manuscripts on Ayurveda and Yoga available with your MR C maybe provided to the Patanjali Yogpeeth for research purpose ,” the N MM director said in an email to the MRCs. The email had no effect.
The Mission has so far digitized about 1200 Ayruveda and Yoga manuscripts. It is said to have about 10,000 Ayurveda and Yoga manuscripts in its possession. It was launched in 2003 during the regime of the NDA government.