Indian literature is way deeper than our imaginations could dig or our intellect could date. We have the ancient texts which are only fathomed on the basis of assumptions and popular beliefs and unfortunately, the negligence towards these ancient scriptures has let them dust and rust in the darker corners of libraries which are rather busy in purchasing books by ‘modern’ authors. Meanwhile, who could ever imagine that a premier institute like IIT could do something for the ‘ancient’ literature of India! Nevertheless, beating all the ‘elite’ notions and presumptions, such an attempt has been made and it is just remarkable! People who want to access these ancient texts in Sanskrit or the Ramcharitmanas in Avadhi can easily do it online because IIT Kanpur has developed a website which features all these. On this website, people can browse and read through the texts of Bhagwad Gita, Bramhasutra, Ramcharitmanas, Valmiki Ramayan, Yogsutra, Upanishads, Gita in other versions, and even the Nepali ancient texts have been featured on the website. There is no limit!
The Gita Supersite is the mother platform which holds the keys to various other platforms and opens the doors to treasures which the Indian ancient texts hold. The texts have been rendered in the original languages and the navigation has been kept very simple yet effective which functions all the way on computers, mobile phones and tablets alike. Thus, the readers can access the website using different browsers without any difficulty.
Such an effort by the scientific institutes like IIT Kanpur shows us that science can be really helpful when it comes to preserve and make the treasures of knowledge easily accessible to the masses. We have seen something like this in the past when Google helped to digitalise the ancient literature written in English and Greek. In India, such an attempt is always welcome because we have the best store when it comes to the philosophical and religious texts.
How to access:
You can open the website https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/
Once you are on the homepage or the welcome page, you can start navigating to various sections of the website and access the resource you like.
by an LN contributor