New Delhi: When one steps inside the quiet, dimly lit gallery at India International Centre, the walls begin to speak. Panels glow softly with Sanskrit words —Bakhshali, Sulbasutras — fragments of ancient manuscripts that seem to whisper across centuries. Hanging delicately on the walls are replicas of palm-leaf inscriptions, their faded scripts etched in the rhythmic precision of shlokas. Down below, in glass cases, lie the preserved originals: verses painstakingly inked on fragile leaves, their edges browned by time. At first glance, one might mistake them for devotional hymns or chants. But a closer look reveals something extraordinary— these are not random shlokas, they are carefully arranged formulations of mathematics.The exhibition, being held in the heart of the city, seeks to bring alive South Asia’s layered contributions to the field of mathematics. The art gallery feels less like a museum and more like a dialogue with time. On one wall, bold letters say ‘The Mathematical Sciences: South Asia’s Contribution’, surrounded by verses from ancient Sanskrit texts, Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Bijaganita, Ganita Kaumudi. Each panel is a window into centuries-old intellectual traditions, where mathematics was not dry calculation but a poetic pursuit.As visitors move further in, red and blue panels unfold the journey of numbers and patterns. One section explains Prastara, a combinatorial method used in musicology to arrange and rank ragas — evidence of how mathematics infused the arts. Another traces the renewal of ideas, when Sanskrit works on astronomy and trigonometry were translated into Persian and Arabic at Feroze Shah Tughlaq’s court, showing how knowledge moved fluidly across regions. A third highlights the crystallisation of regional traditions, from Kerala’s Madhava, who anticipated calculus through infinite series, to Jyesthadeva’s Yuktibhasa, considered the first textbook of calculus in Malayalam.For many, the experience is eye-opening. Nikhil Narayan, a young mathematics student visiting the exhibition, paused thoughtfully by a case. “We have always heard about Aryabhatta or Ramanujan,” he said. “But to see mathematics embedded in Sanskrit, to understand how knowledge was encoded and transmitted, is breathtaking. It feels like uncovering a hidden ancestry of numbers.” The exhibition is on till Sept 14.The project began with the idea of easing access to these treasure troves. “This project started in 2022 with a pilot phase,” explained a senior research associate with the Samhita, South Asian Manuscript Histories and Textual Archive, project.Samhita, which means collection or compilation, is an initiative of IIC, supported by the ministry of external affairs and in collaboration with The Centre for Traditional Indian Knowledge Systems and Skills, IIT-Bombay, to build a database and open-access digital library on manuscripts of South Asian provenance housed outside India on an online platform accessible to scholars worldwide.“An estimated two lakh manuscripts have travelled outside the country over the centuries. The aim is to bring these together on one platform to renew collective engagement with South Asia’s textual heritage,” the research associate said. “This is our third exhibition. The first was in 2023, followed by another last year. This one focuses on South Asian contributions to mathematical sciences.”In the first phase, thousands of manuscripts were catalogued, drawing from collections in University of Copenhagen, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Aksheshwara Mahabihar in Nepal, British Library and Wellcome Collection in London. As many as 17 resources, including libraries and scholars, were accessed. The second phase is now underway.The exhibition highlights seminal works, including Bhakshali dated between 8th and 12th centuries. “It is the oldest preserved manuscript to show zero as a numeral,” he noted. Other displays feature Sulbasutras, detailing Vedic geometry for altar construction, and Aryabhata’s Aryabhatiya, which outlines the decimal system in metrical form.Mathematical concepts were embedded in language and poetry. “The laghu-guru system in Sanskrit meters can be read like a binary code — short and long syllables forming combinations just as 0 and 1 do in computers,” the researcher explained. Similarly, the Bhuta Samkhya system encoded numbers through words: “Aditya denotes 12, Vasus are 8, the moon is 1. Using such words, manuscripts recorded dates and calculations.” In north India, scribes often encoded dates in colophons with this word-number system while the south used the Katapayadi notation assigning values to syllables.Manuscripts and knowledge circulated between South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia through translations and commentaries. Later, this knowledge was carried forward into advanced trigonometry and calculus. “Anyone can access our digitised collections on the platform. Earlier, you needed to consult foreign catalogues and negotiate access. Now, it is all freely available,” he said.
