TREASURE TROVE: From Leh to Imphal rare manuscripts go in safe mode of digitisation

In steel cupboards on the upper floors of the white and pink sandstone edifice of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) are stored an array of computer hard disks and CDs. These don't contain the usual office files, but something much more valuable - scanned copies of 2.53 crore pages from 2.11 lakh rare manuscripts and books sourced from libraries, public temples and individuals from all across India.

These have been digitised by the National Mission for Manuscripts (Namami), an initiative of the central culture ministry started by the earlier BJP-led NDA government in 2003 and inaugurated by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to unearth, preserve and digitise the unknown, forgotten manuscript wealth of India. Namami officials say that they will need an estimated 10,000 terabytes of space to store all the scanned material - which have been saved in .tiff and pdf formats on the CDs and Mission server and need to be transferred onto hard-disks, which are more compact and durable. As of now, however, Namami has only about 750 TB of space, but the officials say that they have written to the ministry to arrange for the hardware needed.

There are an estimated five million 'pothis' found all across India, constituting the largest collection in the world, which lay forgotten in collections with individuals and institutions - libraries, universities, temples, monasteries, and so on. Fourteen years later and after two extensions of its initial five-year term, Namami has succeeded in documenting 4,134,746 (more than four million) manuscripts from places as far apart as Leh and Imphal have been documented. According to officials, they now know of the presence of two million more manuscripts.

The process has unearthed many unknown treasures - for instance, an ancient manuscript on earthquakes called Bhukampalakshana, a set of 4,000 or so manuscripts found in Majuli, Assam, Vaishnava texts perhaps written by the 15th century saints Madhadeva and Sankaradeva, and geneological records maintained by the pandas of the Mattan sun temple in Kashmir of royals and important families, including that of the Nehru family. Namami has also been instrumental in the revival of the endangered Gondi tribal language - a new script for the language was developed based on ancient manuscripts discovered in Gunjala village in Adilabad.

Besides finding manuscripts, Namami's ambit also included conserving, cataloguing, digitising manuscripts and put them online as part of "National Digital Manuscript Library" - in which its record has not been poorer. Thus far, around 4.8 million folios (sheets) have undergone curative conservation. But there's been no headway in setting up the digital library, say officials, because of copyright issues.
The Mission, whose present three-year term ends in March next year, has been languishing without a full-time director for the last two years - the present head is on deputation from the IGNCA.

The headcount of officials at Namami has gone down from 50, when it started out, to 28 now and researchers also complain about the shrinking in funds allocation over the years. "They pay just Rs 30 for a card, which is a kind of detailed initial report on the manuscript with name, condition, script, content, etc. But making out all these details from old, damaged manuscripts with pages missing can often be a time-consuming affair," says one researcher who has been contacted by the Mission to go through manuscripts discovered at the Red Fort.

Without full-time director

Besides finding manuscripts, Namami's ambit also included conserving, cataloguing, digitising manuscripts and put them online as part of "National Digital Manuscript Library" - in which its record has not been poorer. Thus far, around 4.8 million folios (sheets) have undergone curative conservation. But there's been no headway in setting up the digital library, say officials, because of copyright issues.
The Mission, whose present three-year term ends in March next year, has been languishing without a full-time director for the last two years - the present head is on deputation from the IGNCA.