India to host global conference on manuscripts; 10 mn national manuscripts in focus
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 10
With 10 million national manuscripts in focus, India will host a global conference on manuscript heritage from September 11 to 13 at Bharat Mandapam here, the Ministry of Culture announced on Guru Purnima on Thursday.
The event entitled ‘Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage’ will commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s historic address at the Parliament of the World’s Religions on September 11, 1893.
The conference will assemble nearly 500 delegates, including 75 eminent scholars and cultural custodians from India and abroad. Officials said the event would focus on India’s treasure of over 10 million manuscripts, covering philosophy, science, medicine, mathematics, literature, rituals and arts.
Indira Gandhi Centre for National Arts, co convenor of the event, stated, “These manuscripts are far more than historical records; they represent the living essence of the Indian knowledge systems and serve as a vital link for preserving the rich flow of India’s intellectual and cultural heritage.”
“Thematic sessions at the conference will explore a wide range of concerns from conservation, digitisation and metadata standards to palaeographic studies, AI-integrated archival practices, ethical custodianship and curricular integration of manuscript knowledge,” it added.
The envisaged outcomes of the conference include the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration on Manuscript Heritage; the formation of expert working groups for decipherment, conservation, translation and digital archiving; and long-term institutional linkages for national and international collaboration.
The Manuscript Research Partner (MRP) programme will also be introduced to engage young scholars through hands-on training, script labs and the development of digital content.
A manuscript is a handwritten composition on paper, bark, cloth, metal, palm leaf or any other material dating back at least 75 years that has significant scientific, historical or aesthetic value.
Lithographs and printed volumes are not considered manuscripts. Manuscripts are found in hundreds of different languages and scripts. Often, one language is written in a number of different scripts. For example, Sanskrit is written in Oriya script, Grantha script, Devanagari script and many other scripts. Manuscripts are distinct from historical records such as epigraphs on rocks, firmans, revenue records which provide direct information on events or processes in history.
Ministry of Culture invites research papers
The Ministry of Culture has also invited research papers and case studies in Hindi and English on themes of conservation, codicology, legal frameworks, education, cultural diplomacy and technological innovations in manuscript studies. Abstracts can be submitted on https://gbm-moc.in by August 10.
India