HYDERABAD: It is not everyday that you see a person in his mid-twenties working on digitising and translating palm leaf manuscripts (talapatra grandhalu) and texts of various world religions. Dr Arya Vardhan Raaz is exactly that, and more.
Born and brought up in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, Dr Arya Vardhan moved to Andhra Pradesh in 2013, when he was transferred from Manali to Hyderabad, working as a contractor in the Research and Development department at Samsung. He then established Raaz Foundation, a non-profit organisation that, among other things, seeks to better people’s lives across the world.
Till date, he claims to have digitised over 1,76,000 palm leaf manuscripts, and said that he had bought 6,000 palm leaf manuscripts in his personal capacity and preserved them. Most of the manuscripts were sourced from various libraries across the world.
The others were sourced from collectors who had preserved the rare artifacts. Speaking about the manuscripts, he says, “Most people have a misconception that all manuscripts are religious in nature. This is not entirely true. The people in those times used it just like the way we use paper, for writing down anything and everything”.
On the equipment used for digitising the manuscripts, he said, “We have bought a scanner system worth `57 lakh from Germany to translate the documents. The machine can scan over 2,000 manuscripts an hour. Apart from scanning and digitising, we also reconstruct the ones which are damaged”. The funds for digitising the manuscripts were put in his personal capacity, he says.
Anyone seeking the soft copy of manuscripts must send a proposal on his website, http://aryavardhanraaz.com, requesting the purpose. The team then sends the requested documents via either email or CD.
“I had done research on religious texts such as The Bhagavad Gita, Vedas, Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, Puranas, Ramacharita Manas, Quran, Bible, etc and wrote numerous papers on them”, he added.
He translates the manuscripts into Telugu and English, and is working on converting the texts of religious scripts into audio files in various languages such as Sanskrit, Telugu, Bengali, etc.“We are going to publish the audio files in a Youtube channel soon. Currently we are working on dividing them into chapters based on small segments. Once done, will upload them.” The audio files are convenient. People can listen to them while travelling," he adds.
Speaking about Raaz Foundation, he said its chief patron is Anna Hazare. The advisory board includes distinguished personalities such as Dr Amartya Sen (Economic wing), Dr MS Swaminathan (Agriculture wing), Dalai Lama (Spiritual wing), etc, he added.
As per the information on his website, Dr Arya Vardhan has received over 38 doctorates and 12 honorary doctorates from various national and international universities. He is into short films as well. A short film Vali Vadha - Rama Kadha directed by him has won numerous international awards.
A multi-faceted personality, Dr Arya Vardhan’s message to youth is simple - Follow your heart, no matter what others think. Don’t you agree?