International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Dr. Pritesh Patil, Shreyas Patil, Prathvish Shetty, Ashirwad Swami
Abstract: India possesses one of the world's most diverse cultural ecosystems, comprising traditional crafts, regional languages, oral traditions, historical literature, and community-driven knowledge systems. Despite increasing digitization efforts, cultural resources remain fragmented across independent repositories, commercial marketplaces, educational platforms, and social communities. This fragmentation limits accessibility, discoverability, and long-term sustainability of cultural knowledge. This paper presents VIRASAT, a unified digital platform designed to integrate cultural preservation, knowledge dissemination, community participation, and artisan empowerment within a single ecosystem. The platform combines four interconnected modules: HeritageBazzar for artisan-centric commerce, Sangam for expert-led community discussions, Dharohar TV for multimedia cultural documentation, and Bhartiyam, an AI-powered cultural knowledge assistant based on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). The proposed architecture adopts a full-stack design utilizing React, Node.js, MongoDB, cloud-based media services, and artificial intelligence technologies to provide scalable and secure access to cultural resources. The study discusses architectural design principles, module interactions, security mechanisms, and system integration strategies that collectively contribute toward sustainable digital preservation of Indian heritage.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20761381
