Avtar Bhat
SRINAGAR, Jan 19: In order to give a new lease of life to old manuscripts, the Government of India has undertaken an ambitious plan of digitalizing and preserving thousands of old manuscripts in Sharda, Sanskrit, Persian and Arabi scripts lying with various Government, semi Government organizations as well as with temple committees, trusts, Gurudwaras, NGOs and Khanqahs in Jammu and Kashmir.
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.According to official sources, the Kashmir University’s Persian Department has been entrusted with the task under the Gyan Bharatam, a pilot mission organization of GoI. The Department has been designated as cluster centre for five years for implementing ambitious projects related to manuscripts nomination, preservation, conservation and research.
Official sources said on the initiative of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and in consonance with the policies of present Government at Centre to preserve the ancient heritage and culture of different regions of the country earlier a Committee was framed with Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman as its chairperson.
The Committee identified 12 centers across country, and Persian Department of Kashmir University on the basis of its performance was designated as Cluster Centre for the UTs of J&K and Ladakh in this regard.
Dr Jhangir Iqbal, Head of Persian Department University Kashmir was designated as Coordinator Cluster Centre Jammu and Kashmir, Gyan Bharatam Ministry of Culture Government of India.
Dr Jahangir Iqbal, the Cluster Head of Gyan Bharatam said Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed with the Department of Persian University of Kashmir by the Gyan Bharatam. The Department was established in 1948 and it is preserving unique manuscript collection of different languages. In addition to this, the Department is having a separate Research and Publication Section which has published and critically edited many rare manuscripts, he added.
In response to a question that on what basis Persian Department was selected for this task, he said. Besides, the Department has already completed DRS-UGC,DSA-SAP,UGC ,five year innovative programme under 12th plan of UGC and completed three other projects of ICHR,ICSSR,NMM Minister of Culture Government of India. The Department is already having manuscripts resource center (MRC) of NMM (National Mission for Manuscripts) under Ministry of Culture Government of India. On the basis of the best performance of the Department the Gyan Bharatam has provided Cluster Center J&K for the period of five years to the Department of Persian University of Kashmir for implementing ambitious projects related to manuscript nomination, preservation, conservation and research.
Sources said the Vice Chancellor Kashmir University, Professor Nelofar Khan and Registrar Prof (Dr) Naseer Iqbal took keen interest in getting the MoU signed in this regard. Professor (Dr) Jahangir Iqbal was present at the MoU signing ceremony organized by Gyan Bharatam on October 25 last year, at the auditorium of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi in presence of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of Culture, Government of India, sources added.
Professor Jahangir Iqbal, said at present, the University’s Manuscript Centre, Government, Semi Government, Public and Private repositories having more than 70,000 to 90,000 manuscripts are preserved in Jammu and Kashmir. Unfortunately 2014 floods have destroyed most of the manuscripts which is a big loss of national treasure. Under the MoU signed for a period of five years, the collected manuscripts as well as valuable manuscripts in dilapidated condition from other Government and private institutions, temple, Khanqahs, Gurdawars, trusts or eminent persons of the society in Jammu and Kashmir will be catalogued and conserved during the next five years as per the guidelines of Gyan Bharatam, Ministry of Culture, New Delhi. Under this Gyan Bharatam Cluster Centre, specific sub-centres in Jammu and other part of the Valley will undertake registration, preservation and service of manuscripts and valuable Indian literature in a scientific manner.
Vice Chancellor University of Kashmir, Prof Neelofar Khan, while appreciating this decision has appealed to various Government and private institutions, temples, trusts or eminent persons in Jammu and Kashmir to take advantage of this and come forward to cooperate with University of Kashmir preserving the ancient Indian manuscript heritage treasure.
She said the recognition of the Department of Persian and designating it as Gyan Bharatam Cluster Centre underscores the University’s commitment to preserving the nation’s manuscript heritage.
Prof Jahangir said the Sharda being the oldest script of Kashmir and manuscripts in this script need to be preserved for future generations.
Highlighting the work done by Persian Department in this regard, he said a 15 days workshop was organised by the Department in this regard. Besides, the conference on Buddhism was organised in Kashmir followed by seminar on great Shiv Yogni Lal Ded whom he termed the icon of Kashmir. He said a workshop is also being organised by the Department on Rupa Bhawani as well other saints including Sheikh Noordin Noorani commonly known as Nund Rishi.
Prof Jahangir said that efforts are being made to start teaching Sharda script and a certificate course on Sharda. “We are also going to give boost to Pahari and other local languages of J&K”, he added.
He said 25 students have been enrolled in Sanskrit Department to teach them Sanskrit. “There are about many scripts in Sharda which is a treasure trove but apathy is that no one can read them. We enrolled 39 students for the same and 30 out of them are now reading Sharda and now we have decided to translate manuscripts written in Sharda to other languages”.
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