Dr Asit Kumar Panja bags 'Young Scientist Award' in Literary Research

Kolkata: Dr Asit Kumar Panja, an ayurvedic genius from an obscure village in Bankura's Joyrambati, who has already set his footprint in the national and international arena for his multifaceted contributions in the field of Ayurveda, has now bagged the prestigious 'Young Scientist Award' in the category of Literary Research.

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences under the Ministry of Ayush has conferred the award on Dr Panja during a programme in New Delhi on Saturday. Panja, an assistant professor of National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA), Jaipur in Rajasthan has been carrying out research on various aspects of Ayurveda for the past 15 years and has been associated with various research projects of Ayush and World Health Organisation (WHO).

He has gone through classical texts and manuscripts of Ayurveda and converted the treasured knowledge into a modern form, exploring the possible ways of implementing the old and pure form of Indians traditional methods of treatment. Research was done on how the classical ways of treatment and diagnosis can be attributed a modern touch. Panja has performed researches on 35 aspects including the coding of ancient Ayurvedic manuscripts. The coding helps in identifying the diseases that had a mention in the ancient literature.

One of his remarkable performances is deciphering an old manuscript, "Charaka Bibriti" written by Yogendranath Sen, an ancient scholar of Ayurveda that Panja had got in 2014. He started the research work in 2015.

He has analysed the manuscripts critically and published a book of 600 pages containing the substances that had been there in the manuscripts. Being the head of Manuscript segment of the NIA always gives the extra mileage to Panja in deciphering the old literature.

An author of more than 14 books in Ayuurveda, Panja had done his BAMS from Calcutta University in 1997 with three distinctions in Itihas, Agad and Charak and later obtained his MD in Ayurveda Samhita from Rajasthan Ayurveda University in 2003. He was also awarded Phd by Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Rajasthan Ayurved University in 2008.

Panja has a sound knowledge and understanding in all components of Ayurveda, commencing from his command over Sanskrit language to interpreting manuscripts and flourishing clinical practice.

"Bengal has contributed about 80 percent literature research in the form of commentaries of classical texts in Ayurveda, over a period of 1,300 years," Dr Panja said.

Ends.