NEW DELHI: The Culture ministry has kick started a project to preserve and digitise nearly 50 crore pages of rare manuscripts under the Gyan Bharatam Mission. The manuscripts, scattered at different locations in states, are written on diverse materials such as paper, palm leaf, birch bark, and cloth, and span multiple languages, including Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, and Malayalam.
The exercise will take at least three years to complete. Once digitised, the manuscripts will be made accessible to the public through an online portal.
All the records will be made accessible through a dedicated portal. According to the officials, the number of pages to be processed is estimated as one manuscript contains approximately 100 pages. The ministry has already started the tendering process to finalise an agency to take up the project.
Some rare scripts are fragile and require great care. The manuscripts also contain visual materials such as sketches, paintings, charts, maps, and illustrations. Officials said that exact details, count and nature of visual components would only be known once the file or bundle is opened. The other issue with these aging texts are that some of them have stains and worm-marks and the pages have also become translucent. Bleeding of ink on the reverse of the page is also another concern, they added.
The initiative aims to safeguard India’s vast repository of ancient knowledge, literature, and cultural heritage for future generations while ensuring global access to these rare historical treasures.
The digitisation will ensure easy access and longevity of manuscripts available at various locations across India and long-term conservation and preservation of the Indian knowledge system, officials said.
To expand digitisation and improve public access to uphold and celebrate country’s rich traditions, the government restructured the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) with the nomenclature ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’ as a Central Sector Scheme for the period of six years; from 2024-2031 with a total allocation of `482.85 crores.
Till April, nearly 3.5 lakh manuscripts, covering over 3.5 crore folios, have been digitized and over 1.35 lakh manuscripts have been uploaded on the web portal. Around 76,000 manuscripts are available for free.