Subhash Chandra


2024

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Dharmaśāstra Informatics: Concept Mining System for Socio-Cultural Facet in Ancient India
Arooshi Nigam | Subhash Chandra
Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Indian Language Data: Resources and Evaluation

The heritage of Dharmaśāstra (DS) represents an extensive cultural legacy, spanning diverse fields such as family law, social ethics, culture and economics. In this paper, a new term “Dharmaśāstric Informatics,” is proposed which leverages computational methods for concept mining to unravel the socio-cultural complexities of ancient India as reflected in the DS. Despite its profound significance, the digitization and online information retrieval of DS texts encounter notable challenges. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to synergize digital accessibility and information mining techniques to enhance access to DS knowledge traditions. Through the utilization of heritage computing methodologies, it is an endeavour to develop a robust system for digitizing DS texts comprehensively, facilitating instant referencing and efficient retrieval, catering to the needs of researchers and scholars across disciplines worldwide. By leveraging advanced digital technologies and the burgeoning IT landscape, it seeks to create a seamless and user-friendly platform for accessing and exploring DS texts. This experiment not only promotes scholarly engagement but also serves as an invaluable resource for individuals interested in delving into the intricate realms of archaic Indian knowledge traditions. Ultimately, our efforts aim to amplify the visibility and accessibility of DS knowledge, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of this profound cultural heritage.

2022

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Pāṇinian Phonological Changes: Computation and Development of Online Access System
Sanju | Subhash Chandra
Proceedings of the WILDRE-6 Workshop within the 13th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference

Pāṇini used the term saṃhitā for phonological changes. Any Sound change which alters phonemes in a particular language is called Phonological Change. It arises when two sounds are pronounced in a language with uninterrupted speed, then those letters are affected by each other due to Articulatory, Acoustic and Auditory principles in language. The pronunciation of two sounds that are in extreme proximity, affects each other and changes them. In simple words, this phenomenon is known as sandhi. Sanskrit is considered one of the oldest languages in the world. It has produced one of the most huge literary text corpora in the world. The tradition of Sanskrit started in the Vedic period. Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī (AD) is a complete grammar of Sanskrit. It also covers Sanskrit sounds and phonology. Phonological changes are a natural phenomenon in any language during speech but in Sanskrit, it is highly reflected. Sanskrit corpora contain numerous long words. It looks like a single sentence due to sandhi between multiple words. The process of phonological changes occurred based on certain rules of pronunciation and it is codified by the Pāṇini in AD. Pāṇini has codified these rules systemically but the computation of these rules is a challenging task. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to compute the rules and demonstrate an online access system for Sanskrit sandhi. The system also generates the whole process of phonological changes based on Pāṇinian Rules. It also plays a very effective role in Digital classroom teaching, boosting teaching skills and the learning process.

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Digital Accessibility and Information Mining of Dharmaśāstric Knowledge Traditions
Arooshi Nigam | Subhash Chandra
Proceedings of the WILDRE-6 Workshop within the 13th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference

The heritage of Dharmaśāstra (DS) carries extensive cultural history and encapsulates the treatises of Ancient Indian Social Institutions (SI). DS is reckoned as an epitome of the primitive Indian knowledge tradition as it incorporates a variety of genres for sciences and arts such as family law and legislation, civilization, culture, ritualistic procedures, environment, economics, commerce and finance studies, management, mathematical and medical sciences etc. SI represents a distinct tradition of civilization formation, society development and community living. The texts of the DS are primarily written in the Sanskrit language and due to its expansive subject stream, it is later translated into various other languages globally. With the ingress of the internet, the development of advanced digital technologies and IT boom, information is accessed and exchanged via digital platforms. DS texts are studied not only by Sanskrit scholars but also referred by historians, sociologists, political scientists, economists, law enthusiasts and linguists worldwide. Despite its eminence, there is a major setback in digitizing and online information mining for DS texts. The major objective of the paper is to digitize and develop an instant referencing system to amplify the digital accessibility of DS texts. This will act as an effective and immediate learning tool for researchers who are keen on intensive studying of DS concepts.

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Web based System for Derivational Process of Kṛdanta based on Pāṇinian Grammatical Tradition
Sumit Sharma | Subhash Chandra
Proceedings of the WILDRE-6 Workshop within the 13th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference

Each text of the Sanskrit literature is wadded with the uses of Sanskrit kṛdanta (participles). The knowledge and formation process of Sanskrit kṛdanta play a key role to understand the meaning of a particular kṛdanta word in Sanskrit. Without proper analysis of the kṛdanta, the Sanskrit text cannot be understood. Currently, the mode of Sanskrit learning is traditional classroom teaching which is accessible to the students but not to general Sanskrit learners. The acute growth of Information Technology (IT) is changed the educational pedagogy and web-based learning systems evolved to enhance the teaching-learning process. Though many online tools are being developed by researchers for Sanskrit these are still scarce and untasted. Globe genuinely demands the high impacted tools for Sanskrit. Undoubtedly, Sanskrit kṛdanta is part of the syllabus of all universities offering Sanskrit courses. Approximately 100 plus kṛt suffixes are added with verb roots to generate kṛdanta forms and due to complexity, the learning of these forms is a challenging task. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to present an online system for teaching the derivational process of kṛdantas based on Pāṇinian rules and generate a complete derivational process of the kṛdantas for teaching and learning. It will also provide a platform for e-learning for the derivational process of Sanskrit kṛdantas.