The National Manuscript Mission (NMM) is finding difficulty in collection of manuscripts for their preservation, as most people are unwilling to part with their possession. A very few persons, who possessed the rare manuscripts, have given them to the NMM.
While talking to Hindustan Times, Dr Deepti Tripathi director of the NMM said the NMM has made an appeal to the people to provide the old manuscripts, if they had any, for their preservation in the form of book or electronic form so that the ancient knowledge could be spread far and wide. But the biggest difficulty was to make the person in possession of the manuscripts to part with it, she added.
However, the mission has been able to collect some manuscripts. She said the mission, which was constituted by the Union Government in the year 2003, has been able to collect the rare manuscripts only from seven of the Indian states so far. The total number of rare manuscripts received by the mission was around thirty, she added.
Many of the manuscripts collected were in a shabby condition and efforts were being made to read them and get them printed and preserved in electronic form, she said.
{{/usCountry}}Many of the manuscripts collected were in a shabby condition and efforts were being made to read them and get them printed and preserved in electronic form, she said.
{{/usCountry}}She further added, “Most of the manuscripts were received from the states of South India. These manuscripts could be collected after a great difficulty as people hesitated to part with the original manuscript in fear of their misuse or poor upkeep.”
Dr Deepti said the experts at the NMM have now started categorising the manuscripts so that they could be published and made available to the people. These manuscripts are of great use for those who want to acquire ancient knowledge.
About the method of preservation used for the manuscripts she said under the mission, the rare manuscripts were preserved either in the published book form or in electronic forms for future generations.