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The vast manuscript wealth of India contains the ‘memory of the world’. Featuring hundreds of themes, India’s manuscripts represent sophisticated ideas and the most timeless of pursuits – of capturing ideas through language. It is said that a people’s spoken and written language is their most important cultural attribute. In India, over thousands of years, manuscripts have been written in a vast number of languages and each in itself embodies her history.
The National Mission for Manuscripts was launched in February 2003 by the Department of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India, to save this most valuable but less visible, of our cultural inheritances. An ambitious five-year project, the Mission seeks not merely to locate, catalogue and preserve India’s manuscripts but also to enhance access, spread awareness and encourage their use for educational and research purposes.
To celebrate its second anniversary and to join hands with the public in the mission, the Mission is planning a series of programmes called Kriti Rakshana: Manuscripts Week in Delhi. Around the country, forty seven collaborating institutions will hold programmes of their own celebrating the Manuscripts Week.
Tatvabodha – Lecture Series on Indian Knowledge Systems as found in Manuscripts, features the most eminent of scholars discussing themes related to the manuscript wealth of India. The topics covered range from Buddhist manuscripts in the modern day, to Tamil manuscripts and the Bhakti movement, to medial manuscripts and the Persian texts. Through this lecture series it is hoped to draw in more members of the public in the mission to save Indian manuscripts and keep alive their incredible treasure of knowledge. Speakers include Prof. Irfan Habib, Dr. M. S. Valiathan, Dr. Lokesh Chandra, Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan and Prof. R. Champakalakshmi.
Samrakshika-Seminar on Oral Traditions and Indigenous Methods and Materials of Conservation of Manuscripts is being held in collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. To fill the gaps in terms of geographic spread and number of manuscripts in need of conservation, the Mission has strengthened conservation activities through training in conservation, both preventive and curative. There is an urgent need for a pool of competent conservators of manuscripts at the national level who would become the focus of conservation activities. A teaching module on conservation has been developed for imparting training to conservators, who in turn would take up both preventive and curative conservation of manuscripts across the country. As the nodal programme on manuscripts, NMM has developed its own customized conservation strategy by integrating the knowledge of the important conservators of the country as well as local technology available across India.
At the end of the three-day seminar, the working groups will draw up recommendations for research, application and publications related to indigenous methods, materials and practices for conservation of manuscripts.
Exhibition on Oral Traditions and Indigenous Methods and Materials of Conservation of Manuscripts is being organized to formulate recommendations related to exploring the efficacy of these age-old organic techniques as well as to explore oral traditions related to manuscripts. The week-long exhibition showcases the various ‘organic conservation’ materials and techniques practiced in isolated pockets around the country. This exposure to the actual materials and methods will help the seminar participants as well as the general public to appreciate the evolution of manuscript conservation using only natural products. The presence of real medicinal plants and products will also help the audience to relate to the technical aspects of the lectures.
The Mission is also organizing two dance-drama performances from two different regions of the country that bring alive two well-known stories found in manuscripts.
Margi, Thiruvananthapuram, will put up a Kutiyattam performance of Agnipravesan whereas the Sattriya Akademi will put up a performance of Ankiya Naat of Keligopal. Kutiyattam, the Sanskrit theatre of Kerala, can well claim the greatest antiquity, its origin dating back to about two millennia. Ankiya Naat is a form of traditions performance from Assam, which deals with the life of Krishna. Believed to have been founded by the great Shankaradeva, the saint-poet of Assam, it originated in the wake of neo-vaishnavite movement in the 16th century.
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