MYSURU: With the preservation of the oldest surviving copy of Kautilya’s Arthashastra in Mysuru gathering much attention, the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) has expressed its keenness to assess the manuscript’s condition.
The Arthashastra, an ancient account of statecraft and military strategy, written by Kautilya (Chanakya) dates back to 3rd Century BC. The oldest surviving palm leaf copy of the trove of ancient wisdom is with the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) in Mysuru that functions under the University of Mysore.
The institute is world-renowned with a collection of more than 70,000 manuscripts and 40,000 rare books apart from the Arthashastra, Natyashastra as well as Sharadatilaka.
However, recently, questions arose over the condition of Arthashastra and its preservation at the ORI mostly through social media platforms. Taking note of this, the National Mission for Manuscripts, headquartered in New Delhi, had written to the ORI seeking the status of the documents and efforts for its preservation. And as a proactive measure, the NMM has expressed their interest in an expert assessment of the condition of Arthashastra.
Pratap Nanda Jha, Director of NMM, told TNIE that they are waiting for further communication from ORI for the assessment of the manuscript.
“Since ORI does not come under the Department of Tourism and Culture, we are waiting for a communication from the institute to take the assessment process further .... if they give a go-ahead, our personnel can evaluate the condition of the manuscript ... if they prefer to do the same by their own professional, we can give the necessary training,” he said.
He added that ORI has communicated that the manuscript is being taken good care, but considering the importance of it, they have expressed keenness to examine it.
He added that based on the condition of the document, they can go ahead with either preventive conservation, which aims to prevent any damage in the future, or curative conservation, which is done in case damages are observed and repair is needed.