Bihar to conserve over one crore historical paper documents at State Archives

These files and folio contain Mughal age Firmaans and the land records, including that of Raja Todarmal, one among the Navaratnas of Emperor Akbar, the confidential reports, letters and correspondence and notifications issued during the Colonial era

The Bihar government has planned conservation measures for important and confidential historical paper documents for a better and long-lasting life.

(Representative Photo)

According to the people familiar with the matter, one crore files and folios at the Bihar State Archives (BSA) in Patna and at its regional centres in Bhagalpur, Darbhanga and Bettiah, will be given a chemical cleaning treatment, deacidification and tissue lamination.

The documents date back to the Mughal era and include land records of Raja Todarmal, and include papers relating to India’s freedom struggle as well.

“These documents are rare and have been important evidence of our socio-political history. These have helped us understand the way Mughal rulers used to implement the land rules. Besides, through these documents, we have also been able to perceive the socio-cultural and political implications of Gandhi’s visit to Champaran and his Satyagraha during the British period,” Suman Kumar, director, BSA, said.

He added that even though these documents have been preserved at the archives in the best possible ways, papers tend to get pale and brittle over a period of time and need conservation measures.

“We invited conservation experts for this purpose. Tenders inviting the agencies working in this direction have been floated and they have been asked to submit the entry before June 6 this year,” he said.

The official said that the BSA was also getting the files and folio digitised. “Written material need to be preserved in digital format also,” he said.

Altogether 41 lakh folios from the collection at BSA in Patna, have already been digitised, Kumar said, adding “Last year we got 78,000 folios digitised. And works on the rest of the files are also going on.”