[CPProt.net] India: National Survey on Manuscripts planned

[FwdEB]

National Survey on Manuscripts planned

NEW DELHI, FEB. 4. Buoyed by the results of a pilot survey that unearthed
about seven lakh manuscripts from 53 districts across three States in five
days, the Government plans to undertake the first-ever National Survey of
Manuscripts to piece together the country's ``unknown, inaccessible and
fragmented'' intellectual heritage.

To be undertaken by the two-year-old National Mission for Manuscripts,
locating the scattered treasure trove of manuscripts was part of the
original mandate of the Mission. But, even as the then political
dispensation at the Centre spoke about tracking down the five million
manuscripts India is said to be home to, officials were not too optimistic
given the general ignorance about India's written tradition. A pilot survey
conducted in December last in all of Orissa, 12 districts of Uttar Pradesh
and 10 districts of Bihar has made officials at the Union Culture Ministry
sit up and take notice; enough to decide to push for the launch of the
first-ever National Survey of Manuscripts in the next financial year.
Preceded by a massive awareness campaign the survey was conducted by the
Mission for five days in each of the 53 districts and involved about 2,700
people working on the ground in a ``census-like operation.''

With Orissa being a known repository of palm leaf manuscripts, the entire
State was surveyed in one go and 2.9 lakhs manuscripts were found. Bihar
yielded 1.5 lakhs manuscripts from 10 districts and Uttar Pradesh two lakhs
from 12 districts with 1.8 lakhs being found in Varanasi. While any
``handwritten document with knowledge content over 75 years old'' qualifies
to be declared part of India's manuscript heritage as per the Antiquities
Act, the pilot survey has brought up documents that date back to the 14th
century. The antiquated manuscripts apart, the survey at Unnao, U.P.,
brought up a one quintal Mahabharata and a 10-metre-long Holy Quran. The
Mission plans to take up the north-eastern States, Karnataka, Jammu and
Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in the next fiscal in the hope of
wrapping up the entire country by 2008. Besides working towards creating a
National Manuscripts Library at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the
Arts, the Mission is also planning a compendium of indigenous techniques in
manuscript conservation.

Date:05/02/2005 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2005/02/05/stories/2005020505931100.htm