Rare manuscript, textile from Northeast holed up in museums abroad

Times of India, 25 Sep 2007

GUWAHATI: A number of objects from Northeast India, much more ancient than Mahatma Gandhi's handwritten letter recently recovered from a British auction, are preserved in museums and private possessions in Europe and Southeast Asian countries, researchers have claimed.

Samiran Baruah, a researcher in the Assam State Museum says manuscripts of Brahmabaibhatta Purana belonging to the 18th century is in the British Museum.

" Vrindavani Vastra -- the figured silks from Assam -- from the 16th-18th century are found preserved in the British Museum, Chepstow museum in UK and Gemau Museum in France," he told reporters.

Sachipath Puthi (manuscript book) is occupying a place in British Museum.

Vrindavani Vastra are rare silk textile fragments depicting scenes from the life of Lord Krishna in a floral, naturalistic and preciously elegant style. They were used in the worship of Vishnu in the ancient Assamese monasteries.

Baruah had earlier documented 33 manuscripts including 3,000 paintings scattered in many satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) in Assam.

"Probably during the British rule, researchers found these objects and took them to their country," claims Baruah.

On the Vrindavani Vastra , belonging to the times of Assamese Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankaradeva, Baruah cited the findings by Rosemary Crill, author and a curator in the Indian Department at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

Mahatma Gandhi praised Urdu in last letter

News update: Heritage saved! Auction of Gandhi letter stopped CNN-IBN, July 02, 2007
The executors of Albin Schram have agreed to withdraw the Gandhi manuscript from Tuesday's auction in order that it may be acquired by the Indian Government.


Bapu's letter may be stolen: Grandson, CNN-IBN, June 27, 2007 at 22:16
New Delhi: The scheduled auction of a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi, possibly his last before his assassination, has sent the Indian government in a tizzy.
The letter, written on January 19, 1948, is part of a collection of manuscripts put up for auction at the famous auction house Christie's in London. Meanwhile, a harried Indian Government has started the process of bidding for it. Sources in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs have said that they are assessing the cost to bid for Gandhi’s letter, which is expected to fetch £ 12,000 or Rs 10 lakh.

Press Trust Of India, London, June 29, 2007,
In the letter, a rare manuscript that will go under hammer at Christie's in London on July 3, Gandhi said opposing Urdu will "put a wanton affront" on the Muslims, who "in the eyes of Hindus have become aliens in their own land".

Writing in his journal 'Harijan' on January 11, 1948, Gandhi, who appeared disturbed with the dwindling circulation of its Urdu edition, said in the letter that it is likely to be stopped.

Praising Urdu, which he said "is set free from bondage of orthodoxy", he asserted that those who learn it will "lose nothing but gain". At the same time he urged Muslims to learn Devanagari to "enrich their intellectual" capital and subscribe to his journal.continue

See also:

Mahatma in market

Mahatma manuscript up for sale, govt wakes up

India to participate in auction of Gandhi letter

Gandhians demonstrate against auction of letter

Rare letter from Mahatma surfaces

Rigveda Manuscript in Memory of the World Register

This post courtesy: Smart Indian

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute of Pune has the honour of preserving some of the oldest Indian manuscripts. Among others, it has 28,000 manuscripts of Rigveda. Thirty of these Rigveda manuscripts have been added to the UNESCO's list of the International Cultural Heritage. Rigveda is considered the oldest compilation of the Indian philosophical thoughts which survived through the singing and listening in a special manner and thus called Shruti (heard). Later on [corrected - thanks to Yatra-Tatra] there was a need of writing it and the first manuscripts started emerging. The 30 honoured manuscripts are considered to be written from 1800 BC to 1500 BC. continue reading

See also related posts from my blog:

10th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries (ICADL 2007)

The invisible Indian library - Thought for the Day

Rare manuscripts gathering dust

Chandamama gets a snazzier look

Islamic manuscripts section revamp on the cards

Rare manuscripts gathering dust

6 May, 2007 l 0836 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]

PATNA: More than 5,000 rare manuscripts in different languages are decaying in the Patna University (PU) Central Library for want of proper upkeep and preservation.

Even as the library was linked with the Information and Library Networking programme of the UGC several years back, these valuable manuscripts are yet to be transformed into digital and electronic forms.

The manuscript section of the library, once considered to be a repository of rich cultural heritage, has been lying locked for the last several years.

The section was being manned by two research assistants and a manuscript binder, but all the three employees retired and there is none to look after this valuable section today.

The AC machine installed in this section for protecting manuscripts from decay has not been in operation for the last 25 years.

The manuscripts include 1,530 in Persian, 440 in Urdu, 316 in Arabic and 2,547 in Sanskrit, Maithili and Hindi.

All these manuscripts were made available to the library during the last 80 years by different researchers and scholars.

In fact, the PU library itself is facing acute shortage of staff, with all the top posts of librarian and assistant librarians lying vacant. The library, which contains more than 2.50 lakh books and journals, has not appointed any trained staff in the last one decade.

Surprisingly, the libraries of most of the postgraduate departments of Patna University are non-functional in the absence of any trained library staff.

Last year, PU had interviewed hundreds of people for appointment as class three and four staff, including library staff, but no appointment has been made till date owing to reasons best known to the authorities alone.

Consequently, valuable books and journals purchased by the departments with the University Grants Commission (UGC) grants are gathering dust in the libraries. When contacted, Patna University history head Kameshwar Prasad told The Times Of India that the manuscript section of the Patna University library was not proving beneficial to the research scholars due to its poor upkeep.

He pleaded for modernisation of this valuable section so that the rare manuscripts in the possession of the library could be saved for their future use.

The Patna University registrar, Vibhas Kumar Yadav, said that the university would soon appoint a full-fledged librarian. After this appointment, the manuscripts would be digitised, he said.

Chandamama gets a snazzier look

Mumbai: There is good news for those who enjoyed reading Vikram and Betal stories in the old Chandamama magazines – the children’s classic has been sold to a software company which is going to give it a facelift. Read More

Islamic manuscripts section revamp on the cards

Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, March 2: Buoyed up by four of its rare Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit manuscripts getting awarded by the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), the Asiatic Society is drawing up plans to revamp its Islamic manuscripts section.
As the first step, professional librarians, conversant in Persian, Arabic and Urdu, will be inducted to give better service to the scholars and highlight the priceless manuscripts in the society archives.
The absence of librarians conversant in these languages was hamstringing the Islamic manuscript section, a senior official of the society said. The staff pattern ought to be changed to give more utility to scholars dealing with rare manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Urdu.
Nearly 6,000 manuscripts were currently housed in the Islamic section, it was learnt. Collections of Tipu Sultan, Radhakanta Deb and Hedayet Hussain, to name a few, can be perused by scholars.
The collection of manuscripts is a veritable treasure trove for scholars. Dating back to the 17th century, the collection boasts Shahnama written by Firdausi as one among its trasures.
Written by Rashid Taleb, a history of the Chengiz dynasty is also to be found in this collection. It was written in the 16th century.
Abul Fazal’s Ain-i-Akabari is also part of this collection. It is a statistical account of the Mughal empire during emperor Akbar’s reign.
Enthused by the recent awards, senior society functionaries felt that a detailed representation of these manuscripts was needed. The lacuna of not possessing librarians conversant in languages the manuscripts were written in was being felt now, a senior functionary said.

PS. image courtesy: www.catchcal.com

Mehta's Water earns Oscar nomination for best foreign film

Canada's entry for the Academy Awards, Deepa Mehta's Water, earned a best foreign language film nomination Tuesday.

It will compete against Denmark's After the Wedding, Algeria's Days of Glory, Germany's The Lives of Others and Mexico's Pan's Labyrinth.
News source: CBC Arts January 23, 2007; Image source: http://www.dmcityview.com/archives/2006/06jun/06-22-06/movie.shtml

See also: WATER - The movie, an Oscar Contender by Mike Ghouse

Asian, Not Oriental, Politically Correct Lessons of 2006

'Black' coffee may brew trouble, Press Trust of India,

New Delhi, January 7: Order a "black" coffee or talk about "metrosexuals", and you could be accused of being politically incorrect - says a group which describes itself as the "global language police".

On the Global Language Monitor's list – which documents, analyses and tracks trends in language the world over - the top politically incorrect words for the outgoing year are "Oriental", which it says should be replaced by "Asian", and "Macaca", the use of which is believed to have led Senator George Allen's defeat in US polls after he used it to refer to an Indian American aide of his opponent.

In India, our very own Shah Rukh Khans, who likes to be seen in mauves and pinks and are endowed with a dash of feminine sensibilities, will be heralding the menaissance movement.

Even religious phrases have not been spared by the politically-conscious. So there's a demand to rephrase the old prayer 'Our Father in Heaven' to "Our Mother and Father Who Are in Heaven" - that's the Bible in a more just language, as the monitor points out.

Next on the language police's list is "HERstory" for "HIStory".
"Though there are nearly 900,000 Google citations for 'HERstory' they are all based on a mistaken assumption. When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word simply meant 'inquiry'," writes Paul J J Payack, the president of the group. Yet going by the tremendous demand for "HERstory" - the word has made it to the list. Continue reading