Digital Preservation of Rare Manuscripts in Assam - INFLIBNET Centre

Digital Preservation of Rare Manuscripts in Assam 7 th International CALIBER 2009derived from the Latin word ‘Manus’ that meanshand and ‘Scribe’ to write i.e. written by hand.Hand written documents are called manuscripts.Yuddha and Sachitra Bhagawata were displayed atthe World Book Fair-2006-07, held in Frankfurt,Germany.Manuscripts in India have a long tradition that wasproduced in all part of our country in differentlanguages and in scripts. These manuscripts wereregarded as rare commodities, produced with hardlabour and cost. A sense of religious sanctity andreverence were associated with them and they wereworshipped like holy relics, which are now storedin different temples, madrasas, museums,universities as well as in personal custody etc.In Assam, the Satra institutes are the majorcustodian of the rare manuscripts, though some arepreserved in different places, such as in temples,madrasas, museums, and universities as well as inpersonal custody. In ancient Assam, the bark ofAgar was used to write on, which is locally calledSanchipat. It is a unique writing material only usedin Assam.In the middle of 15 th century, Srimanta Sankaradevaand his disciple Madhabdeva, along with their otherdisciples initiated Vaisnava renaissance in Assam.They spread the fragrance of Vaisnava faith amongthe masses, by written different dramas, Bargeet,Geet, poem etc. mainly on Sanchipat, tulapat etc.These manuscripts have still a great role in theVaisnava Society as well as in Assamese literature,which are now treated as the cultural heritage ofthe nation. It is proud for us that two manuscriptsof Assam i.e. Chitra Bhagabata and RatnamalaByakaran, written on Sanchipat have been selectedas the National Treasure of India by the centralgovernment of India, both of them are nowscientifically preserved in the archive of KKHLibrary, Gauhati University. More over other twomanuscripts from this Library, i.e. Lava- Kusha- 15 -Besides, the Satras and Namghars, institutions likeKKH Library of Gauhati University, KamrupAnusandhan Samiti, Department of History &Antiquarian Studies, Guwahati, are the mainrepositories of rare and valuable manuscripts inAssam.In Assam, the Vaisnava people worship themanuscripts as the sacred things. Because of thereligious beliefson, these manuscripts are accessibleto the Hindus only within the Satra premises only.In such situation, the digital surrogate of thesemanuscripts may be the best way for theirpreservation and access. Once the digitization ofthese manuscripts is completed; the users can usethem in digital format without the fear ofdegradation of its quality. The single of a particularmanuscript may produce in unlimited numbersaccording to the users’ needs and can disseminatethem to the remote users too. The users can taketheir required manuscripts with them in digitalform, which are generally kept away from thepeople. Digital preservation may facilitate theglobal accessibility of the manuscripts. Moreoverthe owner of such manuscripts may market theirproducts to the user community worldwide byuploading them on web.4. Initiatives in digital preservation ofmanuscripts in IndiaThinking the importance of digital preservation,in India too, numbers of projects are taken bydifferent organizations for the preservation of thesevaluable manuscripts in digital format.