Towards Methods and Tasks of the Digital Indology

Abstract

The article describes the state of affairs and prospects for research and development in the domain of active use of digitalization and computer programming in the study of the Indian intellectual tradition. The term “Digital Indology” is used this term as an analogy of the expression “Digital Humanities”. Here, it will be understood as the reception and study of philosophical and other classical texts of Ancient and Medieval India with the usage of digital technologies, mathematical statistics, contextual analysis methods alongside with the traditional well-established approaches of philosophy and the humanities. The main trends in the development of digital philosophical Indology are being outlined (viz. the formation of a unified computer database of Indian classical texts, the development of special programs that allow setting and solving new pertaining to the content, as well as historical tasks in the study of various texts of various groups, etc.) The use of mathematical statistics and the methods of contextual analysis are suggested as typical auxiliary methods while analyzing classical texts of India. We do not close our eyes to the possible hidden dangers of a possible fascination with digital methods. Our brief manifesto of Digital Philosophical Indology is to define it exclusively being tool for classical Indological research, which retain its specific philosophical objectives and goals.