India's National Database of Manuscripts Launched

February 15, 2007

NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 14, 2007: India has an estimated five million ancient manuscripts, most of which lie unknown and neglected. The National Mission for Manuscripts, set up by the Ministry of Culture has been tasked to locate, preserve and promote the manuscript wealth of India. Their activities range from conducting nation-wide surveys to discover each manuscript, the documentation and cataloguing of manuscripts and their conservation, training personnel in manuscript studies, publishing important research on manuscripts, organizing lectures, seminars and debates for students and workshops for children. For this, the Mission has established a network of partner institutions across the country. The attempt is to involve scholars, academics, students and the general public. Today, four years into the project, Ambika Soni, Culture and Tourism Minister, launched the National Database of Manuscripts along with a proclamation of 45 selected manuscripts as the manuscript treasure of India.

Now more than ever, said Minister Soni, as India is emerging onto the world stage as a modern society, there is renewed focus in rediscovering the past and integrating it with the present to revive the ancient stream of knowledge for contemporary society. She said the task is to engage in a search for India's own intellectual resources with full awareness of the components of our rich culture. The knowledge from India's past has been forgotten by many. As a result, contemporary Indians have begun looking at the past with scorn and indifference which has resulted in these ancient systems becoming lost or neglected.

The Minister called upon NGOs, scholars and all interested individuals to come forward and contribute in spreading the message about the value and wealth of old manuscripts. India has the largest collection of manuscripts in the world, the Minister said, and this was a momentous occasion for the nation to have an electronic catalogue of one million Indian manuscripts is unsurpassed by any other country.

The Minister also launched the online database, Kritisampada, and opened it to public. Individuals can search on title, author, script, language, subject and material. The database hosts information on individual manuscripts, manuscript collections and printed catalogues and will be accessible in Hindi and English. The National Electronic Catalogue of Manuscripts, will be available on the internet through the Mission's website here: namami.org

Citations were awarded to several scholars and institutions who helped the National Manuscripts Mission launch the electronic database and Information and Broadcasting Secretary S.K. Arora, Indologist Dr. Lokesh Chandra and Prof. V. Kutumba Shastri also spoke on the occasion.

suchandra · February 15, 2007

NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 14, 2007: India has an estimated five million ancient manuscripts, most of which lie unknown and neglected. The National Mission for Manuscripts, set up by the Ministry of Culture has been tasked to locate, preserve and promote the manuscript wealth of India. Their activities range from conducting nation-wide surveys to discover each manuscript, the documentation and cataloguing of manuscripts and their conservation, training personnel in manuscript studies, publishing important research on manuscripts, organizing lectures, seminars and debates for students and workshops for children. For this, the Mission has established a network of partner institutions across the country. The attempt is to involve scholars, academics, students and the general public. Today, four years into the project, Ambika Soni, Culture and Tourism Minister, launched the National Database of Manuscripts along with a proclamation of 45 selected manuscripts as the manuscript treasure of India.

Now more than ever, said Minister Soni, as India is emerging onto the world stage as a modern society, there is renewed focus in rediscovering the past and integrating it with the present to revive the ancient stream of knowledge for contemporary society. She said the task is to engage in a search for India's own intellectual resources with full awareness of the components of our rich culture. The knowledge from India's past has been forgotten by many. As a result, contemporary Indians have begun looking at the past with scorn and indifference which has resulted in these ancient systems becoming lost or neglected.

The Minister called upon NGOs, scholars and all interested individuals to come forward and contribute in spreading the message about the value and wealth of old manuscripts. India has the largest collection of manuscripts in the world, the Minister said, and this was a momentous occasion for the nation to have an electronic catalogue of one million Indian manuscripts is unsurpassed by any other country.

The Minister also launched the online database, Kritisampada, and opened it to public. Individuals can search on title, author, script, language, subject and material. The database hosts information on individual manuscripts, manuscript collections and printed catalogues and will be accessible in Hindi and English. The National Electronic Catalogue of Manuscripts, will be available on the internet through the Mission's website here: namami.org

Citations were awarded to several scholars and institutions who helped the National Manuscripts Mission launch the electronic database and Information and Broadcasting Secretary S.K. Arora, Indologist Dr. Lokesh Chandra and Prof. V. Kutumba Shastri also spoke on the occasion.

Years ago there was a fuzzy governmental release that they wanted to stop the scrupelous theft of India's intellectual property of being commercialized by Western publishing houses who just steal and translate ancient books and sell them on the world market to millions of people. Seems this issue is very suddenly of no more the slightest importance for India's leaders.

One example: India's Gods and Goddesses published globally by Mandala Publishing,

http://mandala.org/product_info.php?products_id=BK1103HB