The biggest challenge is determining the exact list of topics that can come under the umbrella of Indian Knowledge Systems, along with their classification. It is already established that identifying contemporary and indigenous design solutions is a difficult endeavour due to the fact that it mostly happens in rural regions of India. If one considers ancient Indian arts, design has no clear definition, and one has to manually scourge through the scriptures and establish connections, and then map them to modern design to identify relevant principles that can be learned and taught. Secondly, most Indian knowledge was oral and passed down as word of mouth [15] [19] [14], or it was written in old scriptures, making them difficult to preserve and decipher. The knowledge required to read classical texts far exceeds the mere knowledge of a language like Sanskrit [31].
Ancient India also consisted of various periods of history, each having its own influence on arts and literature, and it is important to recognise this diversity to be able to extract principles of design relevant today. Choosing the right literature with an optimal focus on art theories and principles, rather than the underlying stories is of utmost importance.