Far More Ancient Manuscripts Exist In India Than Thought

Sacrificer           unknown
Sacrifice code       wfor0370
Sacrifice date       25 march 2009

NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 27, 2005: Till now it was believed that the number of ancient texts and treaties lying neglected and unseen across the country was one to two million. But officials at the National Mission for Manuscripts were taken aback when they launched a survey. They found a staggering five million manuscripts after their pilot survey in three states, making India the largest storehouse of the "records of yore" in the world. And the count is not the final tally, says Mrs Sudha Gopalakrishnan, the director of the mission. Seven hundred thousands of these are from only three states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa -- where the mission surveys were held. The interesting volumes they came across include a voluminous copy of the Mahabharata weighing a quintal (100 kilos!) and a meter-long copy of the Quran.

The mission, established in 2003 by the Centre under the ministry of culture to take care of the untended manuscripts across the country, now plans to embark on a hunt for ancient texts in other states like Rajasthan and Gujarat. Last year's search in the three states -- 30 districts of Orissa, 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and 10 districts of Bihar -- was carried out through a well-defined strategy involving around 2,700 people. Archaeologists from countries like China and Thailand had visited India a few years ago. Their report contain no hints about such an abundance of hidden manuscripts in India. "We involved students and teachers in our drive to find the olden texts. They then searched the villages in the districts -- their libraries, temples, monasteries and madarsas -- for texts," says Ms Gitanjali, coordinator of the survey.

In Orissa itself around 17,857 manuscripts, most of them texts of tantra, were found. In Unnao in UP about 25,000 manuscripts surfaced. The total of five million in the mission's estimate also includes manuscripts that are digitized and documented such as the 500 manuscripts of the 6,000 stored at the Iqbal Library in Srinagar and 85 manuscripts of 1,000 Kudiyattam manuscripts from Kerala. According to the honorary secretary of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, Mrs Saroj V. Bhate, the institute is planning to coach around 30 people in indigenous methods of conservation. The Mission has also identified 3,500 manuscripts from the Orissa State Museum, 4,000 Vaishnavite manuscripts from Majuli Islands in Assam and 6,500 manuscripts from Tamil Nadu about Siddha stream of medicine, digitalization of which began from January 15 this year, according to a report prepared by the mission. Yet another project of the mission is the preservation of manuscripts with natural agents, in keeping with the climatic conditions of the areas.

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