Knowledge Preservation: Need for a Multi-pronged Approach – Lessons from Ancient Indians

Abstract

The leaps and bounds with which the knowledge domain of our modern civilization is growing pose a formidable challenge as to how this wealth of knowledge is to be preserved for posterity. Are we sufficiently prepared should there be any cataclysm of gigantic proportions or a major catastrophe such as a nuclear war? What if the whole world is thrown awry and crippled by such major events? How do we ensure that future generations of humans who would have inherited a substantially destroyed world can rebuild it back to its glory? How to safely supply the wealth of knowledge we amassed from modern advancements in science and technology to those generations who have to rebuild everything from scratch? This paper examines the techniques espoused by our wise ancient Indian sages to transmit knowledge to posterity across many millennia, the wisdom and philosophy behind such adopted measures and whether there are lessons for us to learn from them.