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Efforts to digitize 95,000 rare manuscripts in SSU gather pace
The union ministry of culture wanted that the manuscripts should be digitised in the shortest time possible. As per its instructions, the work would be done at a fast pace, said Prof Chand Kiran Saluja, director (academics) of Sanskrit Promotion Foundation.
VARANASI: The union ministry of culture has expedited the efforts to digitize 95,000 rare manuscripts preserved in the historical Saraswati Bhavan in Sampurnanand Sanskrit University (SSU) here.
As part of the efforts, the ministry’s representatives, including Sanskrit Promotion Foundation director (academics) Prof Chand Kiran Saluja and its executive officer Dr Lakshminarasimhan held a marathon meeting with SSU vice chancellor Prof Hare Ram Tripathi, librarian Prof Rajnath, and chief proctor Prof Dinesh Garg on Friday.
“The ministry wants that the manuscripts should be digitised in the shortest time possible. As per its instructions, the work will be done at a fast pace, ” said Prof Chand Kiran Saluja, director (academics) of Sanskrit Promotion Foundation. He said digitization of 1500 manuscripts had been done in the past.
Prof Saluja said, “This library is nationally renowned. The books kept in the new library will also be preserved. These books will be digitized and their digital forms will be available for research students willing to work on Indian culture and ancient Indian knowledge and science.”
SSU VC Prof Tripathi said, “Through this Preservation, we will take the precious knowledge acquired from our sages to new generations.”
To recall, on May 2, secretary, ministry of culture, Govind Mohan chaired an online meeting that was attended by SSU vice chancellor Prof Hariram Tripathi, member secretary of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts Prof Sachchidanand Joshi, Prof Saluja, Dr Chamu Krishna Shastri and Dr Vyomesh. It was decided the ministry would send its representative for physical verification of Saraswati Bhavan and manuscripts.
On April 30, UP chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra held a meeting in Lucknow regarding the preservation of the manuscripts and their translation so that the new generation may get benefit of the knowledge contained in them.
SSU VC Prof Tripathi said that efforts to digitise manuscripts caught pace after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the historical Saraswati Bhawan library in March this year. He was delighted to see the beauty of the historical building and rare manuscripts. Since then, several meetings were held.
SSU public relations officer Shashindra Mishra said this library was established at the time of establishment of Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi in 1894. But the foundation stone of its building was laid on November 16, 1907. This building was completed in 1914 and was named ‘Prince of Wales Saraswati Bhawan’.
Initially, this library had 1,11,132 manuscripts on subjects like Vedas, Vedangas, Puranas, astrology and grammar etc. but at present their number was about 95,000. These manuscripts were written in Devanagari, Kharoshthi, Maithili, Banga, Oriya, Newari, Sharada, Gurmukhi, Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit scripts on gold leaf, paper, palm leaf, bhojpatra and wood.
Many manuscripts, including Tripitaka and Shrimad Bhagwat Gita written on gold leaf were about 900-years-old, added Mishra.
