Preserving the past: PU digitising Gita written with grain of rice, Mahabharata in Persian
About 1,492 manuscripts, 50% donated to PU and others purchased on various occasions, are being currently digitised (photographed and numbered to be electronically processed) currently with support from the National Archives of India.
A Shrimad Bhagavad Gita dating back to the 17th century, written with a grain of rice; paintings of Krishna by Iranian artists and records of the Mutiny of 1857-58. Punjab University’ AC Joshi Library is a treasure house of rare documents which are being preserved through digitisation.
About 1,492 manuscripts, 50% donated to PU and others purchased on various occasions, are being currently digitised (photographed and numbered to be electronically processed) currently with support from the National Archives of India.
“Around 1,200 manuscripts have been digitised till date. Others are not in a good condition and cannot be processed,” says Mritunjay Kumar, assistant archivist of the library.
The collections
Apart from the Bhagavad Gita written with a rice grain, the library boasts of another copy of the Gita, eleventh skanda (chapter), written in Gurmukhi, among other religious texts.
Many of these manuscripts, says Kumar, are from a time when religious texts were being translated from one script to another by scholars keen to learn about different religions. “One can find out more about the history of such scripts as the manuscripts were written in Gurmukhi which used words in continuity, without space as used in Urdu.”
Mahabharata in Persian
The library also has a copy of Mahabharata translated in Persian by Shri Vias Devgi Maharaj, in Nastaliq (Arabic script developed sometime during the 15th century). Dating back to the 17th century, it has vibrant illustrations by Iranian painters on Hindu culture, even Krishna. It was bought from one Prithipal Singh of Amritsar in 1956.
Sharing a fascinating fact, Kumar says during the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahangir, whose passion for the arts led to various scriptures being translated into Persian and illustrated, snakeskin was added to the paper as it was thought to be a great preservative.
National Archives of India funds processes to digitise manuscripts, depending on the need. “Every year we get Rs 10 Lakh for this purpose. It can also sanction Rs 1crore for a separate archival building, which we had applied for in 2015, as the PU library is the richest in north India in terms of manuscripts,” Kumar adds.
Regular visitors to the archival sections of the library include students from the humanities departments, some researching the manuscripts. Other visitors include researchers from the UK, USA, Canada and even the Arab countries who come to look at the manuscripts.
The library also has ‘Jauhar-al-Tarkeeh’ a book on prosody (pattern and rhythm of poetry) and syntax of Persian, and ancient writings on Vedanta among nearly 400 manuscripts donated by former vice chancellor Dewan Anand Kumar. It also has around 20,000 rare books which include Mutiny records, education reports from the colonial era and a complete digitised collection of Ruchi Ram Sahni, freedom fighter and educationist.
A catalogue with details of all its books in three languages is also maintained by the library.
Treating and preserving manuscripts
For preservation and treatment, the manuscripts and the rare books go through four steps. The first step is fumigation or ‘heat treatment’ in which books are exposed to temperatures of 58 degree Celsius for 24 hours to destroy book lice and worms. The process is carried out at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10. The second step is to de-acidify the books to remove spots. The third step is laminating the pages as per archival terms which increases the life of the book up to 100 years. The fourth and last step is digitisation.