Using eCESS

Special Characters:

Click any character button below the search bar to insert it into your query:

Search Tips:

• Use the diacritical mark buttons for accurate Sanskrit transliteration.
• The default Prefix match finds all entries starting with your query — useful for partial names.
• Try Similar term to find entries with variant spellings or transliterations.
• Use the timeline to narrow results to a specific historical period.
• For broad questions like "What astronomical works came from Kerala?", try Ask CESS instead.

Advanced Options:

Click the Advanced toggle below the diacritical buttons to access:

• Search in: Both headword and entry (default), Headword only, or Entry text only.
• Match type: Exact term, Prefix (default), or Similar term (fuzzy).
• Sort by: Relevance, Volume then Entry No. (default), Entry Number, Alphabetical, Volume, or Page — each with ascending/descending options.

Result Features:

• View Scan: Click the icon to view the original scan from the printed volumes.
• Bookmarks: Click the icon to save entries for later (requires an account).
• Entry Details: Badges like Large or Addition indicate entry properties. Entries also show chronological dates and Subjects where available.

Filtering Results:

• Volumes: Use checkboxes to filter by one or more volume numbers (1–5). Proportional bars show how many entries each volume contains.
• Timeline: A histogram showing when authors lived. Drag across the chart to select a date range, or type years into the From / To fields and click Apply.
• Bookmarks: Show only your saved entries (requires an account).

Active filters appear as badges in the filter sidebar. Click × on a badge or use "Clear All" to remove them.

Keyboard Navigation:

• Use the Previous/Next buttons to page through results.
• Press ← / → arrow keys to move between pages.

Asking a Question:

• Type your question in the text area and press Enter or click Ask. Use Shift+Enter for a new line.
• Click any of the suggested query chips below the input (e.g. "Kerala astronomy", "Surya Siddhanta") to pre-fill a sample question.
• The system will search the CESS database, then stream the answer token by token with a progress indicator showing each step (Analyzing → Retrieving → Generating).

Options & Toggles:

• Deep Search: Toggle this on for a more thorough analysis that re-ranks results before generating the answer. Takes a bit longer but can improve accuracy.
• Search bookmarked entries only: Restrict the AI to only search entries you've bookmarked, useful for focused research on your personal collection.

Understanding the Answer:

• Answers include citation links — click one to scroll down to the corresponding source card.
• Each source card shows the entry headword, text excerpt, volume/page reference, and a colour-coded relevance score indicating how closely it matched your query.
• After receiving an answer, use the / feedback buttons to help improve future responses.

Conversation History:

• Previous question–answer turns are kept below the current answer, so you can ask follow-up questions in context.
• Click New Conversation at the top to clear the history and start fresh.

Getting Started:

• Open Network from the navigation menu.
• Type a person's name in the search field on the left panel — an autocomplete dropdown will suggest matches (it also shows top persons when the field is empty).
• Select a person to load their ego-network: the person at the centre with all direct connections radiating outward.

2D & 3D Views:

• The graph defaults to an interactive 3D WebGL view with a gradient skybox for spatial orientation. Toggle between 3D and 2D (SVG) modes using the buttons in the top-right toolbar.
• In 3D mode: orbit by dragging the background, zoom with the scroll wheel, and watch animated directional particles flow along directed edges.
• In 2D mode: pan by dragging the background and zoom with the scroll wheel. The layout uses a radial force arrangement around the centre node.

Navigating the Graph:

• Hover over any node to see a tooltip with the person's name, floruit dates, relationship count, and extracted evidence text (📜) from the source entry.
• Click a neighbour to pivot the graph, loading that person's own ego-network. The detail panel on the right updates automatically with aliases, source entry text, and all relationships.
• Drag nodes to rearrange the layout. In 3D, dragged nodes stay pinned — right-click a node to release it.
• A breadcrumb trail at the top tracks your navigation path — click any breadcrumb to jump back.

Network Depth (Multi-Hop):

• Click the depth button () in the toolbar to cycle through 1°, 2°, and 3° network depth.
• At 1° you see only direct connections. At 2° and 3° you see connections-of-connections, rendered with smaller, muted nodes and dashed borders to distinguish them from direct neighbours.
• Hovering a 2nd/3rd-degree node highlights the full BFS path back to the centre, making it easy to trace how two people are connected.

Find in Network:

• Use the Find in Network tool ( in the top-right toolbar, or the Find in Network field in the sidebar that appears once a graph is loaded) to locate a specific node within the currently loaded graph. In the toolbar, click the crosshairs button to expand the search field.
• The found node gets a pulsing ring highlight, and the shortest path from it back to the centre node is traced. All other nodes and edges are dimmed so the path stands out.
• Clear the find with the × button to restore the normal view.

Filters & Controls:

• Relationship Types: Toggle which kinds of relationship to display (e.g. teacher–student, commentator, cited-by). Use the "All" / "None" shortcuts for quick selection.
• Min Confidence: Drag the slider to hide lower-confidence relationships and keep only the most reliable links.

Toolbar Actions:

• Fullscreen: Enter fullscreen mode to maximise the graph area. Press Esc or click the button again to exit.
• Download PNG: Export the current graph as a high-resolution PNG image (4× resolution in 3D, 2× in 2D) — useful for publications or presentations.

Reading the Detail Panel:

• Each relationship shows a direction arrow (→ outgoing, ← incoming), a type badge, and a colour-coded confidence score (high, medium, low).
• Where available, an evidence excerpt (📜) shows the source text that the AI used to infer the relationship.
• Click the source entry link to jump to the corresponding CESS search result, or click a relationship row to pivot the graph to that person.
• On mobile, the detail panel slides up as a bottom sheet. Swipe down or tap × to close it.