As part of the Union culture ministry’s Gyan Bharatam Mission launched to survey, document, conserve and digitise India’s manuscript heritage, a record 30,10,518 (30.10 lakh) manuscripts have been identified and preserved across Uttar Pradesh. It is followed by Rajasthan with around 19 lakh manuscripts.
Event Context
In the initial phase of the survey, the number of manuscripts from the state was estimated to be much higher. However, nearly 15 lakh entries were rejected because they did not meet the mission’s high-quality and strict national standards.
“This historic and verified figure of 30.10 lakh was recorded only after final scrutiny and intensive verification. Following the completion of this survey phase, special teams of the department have now moved to the next stage—undertaking high-resolution scanning and secure uploading of all these manuscripts onto the digital portal,” said UP culture minister Jaiveer Singh.
Amit Agnihotri, director, Uttar Pradesh State Archives, said the contribution of the state’s youth has been unparalleled. “The State Archives organised special workshops to provide rigorous training to the youth in identifying and documenting manuscripts. Subsequently, a large number of these trained youths were deployed on internships as ‘Pandulipi Mitras’,” Agnihotri added.
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According to the survey data, Ayodhya has secured the top place in the state as 10,42,491 manuscripts have been identified and recovered. Unnao stood second with 4,57,375 manuscripts while Varanasi, is at the third spot, where 4,23,287 manuscripts have been preserved. In Bhadohi, only a single manuscript could be registered during the survey.
