How Centre's Gyan Bharatam Mission Can Breathe Life Into India's Manuscript Conservation Efforts

— By Dr S Rajendu

The government's Gyan Bharatam Mission has renewed the focus on India's vast yet often neglected manuscript collections. These manuscripts, whether on palm leaves or paper, are lying abandoned in warehouses across the country. The palm leaf collections primarily contain two types of texts: classical works such as the Ramayana, Devi Mahatmyam, and Bhagavata Mahapuranam, alongside significant land income records. Additionally, there is a wealth of correspondence materials.

Most paper documents, dating back to the colonial period in southern India, are preserved in government archives, whereas the vast collection of palm leaf manuscripts remains in private hands. As a repository of invaluable heritage, these manuscripts demand urgent conservation efforts.

Exquisite Ancestral Treasures

Edward B. Eastwick, in his 'Handbook of Western Rajputana', speaks in high terms of the way in which the 'Malwa collection' is kept: "I have certainly seen no library which can compare with it in that respect. Each manuscript is in a separate cloth, and an outside label, placed where it can best catch the eye, gives the name of the book and of the author."

He says the manuscripts were arranged according to subjects in separate bookcases and bear numbers that tally with the catalogue compiled by the librarian, Joshi Gangada. "The tax we made upon this worthy gentleman's skill was no light one: as, in addition to my own party of four, we were never without the assistance of three or four Shastris from the town engaged in examining such manuscripts as we could not ourselves overtake," he writes.

Vasco Da Gama made similar comments on his arrival at the Zamorins' [rulers of Calicut] Calicut office in 1498. There were 40 more writers, Menons, at the office to maintain the palace records. We wish to revive the lost cultural tradition of holding records.

The Kumaranalloor Manuscript Collection

In February 2024, a trove of palm leaf manuscripts was discovered in the attic of the Kumaranalloor Devi temple's office in Kottayam. Most of them suffered substantial damage. The author worked on it, hiring a woman employee and assigning her to the conservation project at the French Institute in Puducherry. Along with her, the mound was sorted and numbered at 37,200. They were classified as temple daybooks, land income records, communication documents, and miscellaneous. Most of them were between 250 and 300 years old.

The Travancore Manuscript Collection

Another collection can be found in the Government Archives in Trivandrum. A million or more manuscripts were taken from the Matilakam of Padmanabhaswamy Temple, which is in the royal line of Travancore. The scrolls, known as curunas, were stored in an antique building at Fort. Recently, the Kerala government established a museum to house some of them.

Challenges To Manuscript Conservation

The medieval script and language are distinct. For instance, these manuscripts were primarily written in the medieval Vatteluttu script in Kerala. The handwriting in some of the manuscripts was difficult to comprehend. Thus, the absence of experts hampered transliteration and publication efforts. The medieval terminologies for land revenue records differ from those used today. This also affected the deciphering of inscriptions and texts.

In the present elementary and secondary education systems, a lack of profound language acquisition has resulted in a lower ability to grasp medieval languages.

As a member of the Dravidian language family, Malayalam was spoken throughout Malanad, from Kasargode to the south. It employed Vatteluttu to write the writings in the early medieval period. A few inscriptions in the river basins and remote highlands of the Western Ghats indicated Vatteluttu's expansion. It takes several years to fully understand the script and language. The new generation prefers quick PhD degrees. Hence, they spend less time on the inscriptions.

Proposed Solutions

A conservation lab is required to maintain such collections. Selected manuscripts should be displayed at museums. Another approach to promoting such documents is to establish a research institute. An academician can then curate and collaborate on scholarly presentations. A digital lab is necessary to capture photos of the manuscripts, and a repository with a catalogue allows the researcher to work on them. The Sevadhi Museum & Indological Research Institute in Kottayam functions as such.

Instead of engaging in such multifaceted academic activity, most organisations just photograph the texts. Every university in India should have a museum and research centre to conserve the traditional knowledge as part of its Indian knowledge system.

Recent Government Policy: The Gyan Bharatam Mission

The 'Gyan Bharatam Mission' announced in the Union Budget 2025-26 is a unique mission for the survey, documenting, and protection of India's textual history. This initiative intends to cover over one million manuscripts. The Gyan Bharatam Mission is intended for academic institutions, museums, libraries, and individual collectors.

The revamped mission will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 9.

The project benefits the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM). Their financial allocation has been enhanced from Rs 3.5 crore to Rs 60 crore per year. The NMM's goal is to identify, document, and make manuscripts available across the country.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Cultural Minister, said: "The new mission announced by Nirmala Sitharaman will enable Bharat to preserve and protect the invaluable wisdom and knowledge held by these manuscripts found across the country.” 

Universities, colleges, and other academic institutions should prioritise surveys, gathering, and preservation of neglected documents in surrounding communities when carrying out such tasks. They can also incorporate at least one Indic Studies curriculum into each area, including science, engineering, and law.

[The author is a professor (IKS) and director at COE Indic Studies, Alliance University]

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