Trekking muddy tract for manuscript conservation

BHUBANESWAR: The State boasts of exquisite and priceless palm leaf manuscripts __ treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge on our rich legacy. Be it Jayadev’s Gita Govinda or other centuries-old rare texts, palm leaf manuscripts always have had a special place in the cultural tradition of the State. Besides institutions like archives and museums in urban areas of the State, there are several families in  villages who possess rare manuscripts but are unaware of their history and rarity.  To reach out to such people, steps have been initiated by the Manuscript Conservation Centre here through workshops and temporary laboratories.The Centre was previously known as the Orissa Art Conservation Centre, sponsored by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). It was rechristened as the Manuscript Conservation Centre after its collaboration with the National Mission for Manuscripts under the Union Ministry of Culture, Government of India, in 2003.“Besides urban area, a chunk of rare manuscripts are still with people in villages of the State. Though people worship them, they are not aware of their importance and conservation aspects,” said Mallika Mitra, in-charge of the  Manuscript Conservation Centre.Besides three State-level workshops this year, the Centre has planned to organise rural workshops in various parts of the State on a regular basis through local manuscripts conservation partner centres. Separate programmes will be organised for training conservation activists. “At rural workshops, the instructors from the centres would teach owners of manuscript collection the basics of threading, tying, cleaning, oiling and wrapping of the rare documents in practically possible ways,” Mitra said.Besides regular conservation, the centre is now carrying out curative conservation of as many as 35,000 extremely rare manuscripts owned by private and public institutions including Utkal and Berhampur universities. At Utkal, 500 bundles of rare manuscripts have been treated and in Berhampur varsity, work on 600 manuscripts out of 1,000 has been completed.“We aim to make it a  centre of excellence in  preventive and curative conservation of manuscripts. Talks are on with government bodies for funding of conservation works,” Mitra added.