ACIP Offices in Varanasi
ACIP’s office in Varanasi is the flagship of its Sanskrit input operations. Headed by Dr. Santosh Dwivedi, Manager of India Operations, this center is responsible for oversight of the operations in India and for all Sanskrit input.
Input Data
The latest data from the Varanasi Center is available for download here.
History of Varanasi Center
The Sanskrit input operation began in 2005, founded by Pt. Nand Kishor Dwivedi, a renowned scholar of Indology. subsequently it came under the direction of Dr. Santosh Dwivedi. Construction of the dedicated scanning and input center that is currently in use was completed in December 2012.
The center’s main objective is to locate and preserve the original paper and palm leaf manuscripts that provide the basis for hundreds of thousands of works of Sanskrit literature, in particular yoga, ayurveda, esoteric wisdom and other great traditions of Indian civilization. The Varanasi center not only helps find manuscripts and texts; it is responsible for their input into e-text, which is then entered into a database, making all input texts searchable using custom software.
The Varanasi input center also helps coordinate the work of scholars such as Dr. N.V. Ramachandran, director of the ACIP Sanskrit Project in Kerala, whose life work has been the collection and scanning of Sanskrit literature. Dr. Ramachandran scours libraries, institutes, and private collections throughout India, photographing and scanning many thousands of manuscripts. To date, he has collected three million scans of Sanskrit literature; much of this is available on the ACIP website, with daily work to add to the total.
The Varanasi input center has also been instrumental in aiding North American researchers in their work to locate and procure ancient Sanskrit works of yoga philosophy and esoteric wisdom. As they are processed, these are made available on the ACIP website, free of charge to users worldwide.
Dr. Dwivedi spearheaded the acquisition of land in Varanasi in 2017 for the establishment of a college to teach Sanskrit, to be known as the Indological Institute of Sanskrit Learning and Research, Kashi. ALL’s vision is for the college to offer training in this ancient language to students from the US, Europe, and East Asia. The college will help develop, preserve and advance Sanskrit learning. It will offer three-month or six-month training curricula. Classes will then be offered by Varanasi pandits, who will deploy their systems of written examination and issue certificates and degrees. The primary purpose of the Indological Institute of Sanskrit Learning and Research, Kashi, will be to provide a platform for the world’s scholars to speak, write, and read Sanskrit, and eventually do research in the field of Sanskrit literature, specifically Indology, through the use of veteran scholars from all parts of India.
Varanasi Advisory Committee
Prof. Kamlesh Dutt Tripathi
Director, IGNCA, East
Varanasi Centre
Cell: 8765927606
Prof. Sadashiv Dwivedi
Reader, Sanskrit Department
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
Cell: 9454860068
Prof. Shiv Ram Sharma
Sahitya Department,
Sanskrit Vidya Dharma VijyanSankaya
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
Cell : 8090232724
Prof. Sheetla Pr. Upadhyaya
Reader, Shaiva Agam
Department of Sankhya-Yoga-Tantraagam
Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi
Cell: 9450012561
Prof. Kamlakant Tripathi
Department of Mimansa
Sampurnanand Sanskrit University
Varanasi
Cell : 9452072855
Prof. Rakesh Pandey
Reader, History Department
Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi-5
Cell: 9415221472
Dr. Shitla Prasad Pandey
Dharmagam Department
Sanskrit Vidya Dharma VijyanSankaya
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
Cell : 9452823899
Dr. Rama Ghose
Ex- Head, Philosophy Department
Arya Mahila Degree College,
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
Cell: 9451067276
Prof. Manu Dev Bhattacharya
Professor, Department of Grammar,
Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Varanasi
Cell: 9336013346
Dr. Rakesh Mishra
Assistant Professor, Sanskrit Department,
G. M. University, Sambalpur, Orisha.
Cell : 9336824098
Rajeev Lochan Sharma
Research Scholar
Sanskrit Vidya Dharma VijyanSankaya
Banaras Hindu University
Cell: 9794790632