BHUBANESWAR: In a role reversal, Gujarat recognises Orissa as leader at least on one vital count. In fact, the safety of Gujaratis’ age old treatises, including Jain texts that impart strength to their entrepreneurship instinct, lies in Orissa’s safe hands.
The State’s traditional expertise in writing, conserving and illustrating its ancient valuable texts on ayurveda, tantra and many historical exploits has been on high demand in Gujarat. Conservationists there flock to Orissa, especially Haridaspur in Puri district, to source skilled scribes and volumes of palm leaf to convert their voluminous paper treatises to palm manuscripts.
The salient fact is, it is not that Orissa has no competitors. Some advanced states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have a very rich and varied expertise in the faculty of palm leaf manuscripts. But Orissa scores over all.
Speaking to this Paper, Mallika Mitra, NMM-INTACH Project Coordinator, explains the reason. Mitra said Orissa is the only State in the country that still pursues its illustrative writing, sessioning and inking practices even today. Also, the palm leaves of the State are good quality-wise. These very factors are primarily responsible for the State’s success, she added.
When asked about reasons behind the high demand, Mallika said the life span of palm leafs is more than double that of the papers. She said, “A paper survives for a maximum of 200 years against that of 400 years by the palm leaves”.
But the irony is conservation of its own valuable palm manuscripts which are over 1.5 lakh are lying insecure in many private households. She said that INTACH has so far conserved around 37,000 non-illustrated and 400 illustrated manuscripts in the State.
Given the enormity, INTACH ICI Orissa Art Conservation Centre with the support of the National Mission for Manuscripts started a week-long training course here today. Professionals from Tripura, Manipur, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Tirupati are attending the workshop here.
Mallika said the State is facing a dearth of conservation institutions here. The PG pass-outs in cultural heritage are not finding enough job opportunities here and going outside. This is indeed a loss for the State, said Mitra.