Exhibition of original manuscripts, other rare archival material to open in Delhi on Friday

A month-long exhibition of several original manuscripts, colonial-era proscribed literature and other rare archival material will open in Delhi from Friday, officials said. Minister of State for Culture Meenakashi Lekhi will inaugurate the exhibition to mark the International Archives Day, they said.

The exhibition 'Hamari Bhasha, Hamari Virasat' is being organised by the National Archives of India (NAI), also under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

''The exhibition will present a selection of original manuscripts drawn from the annals of the archival repository (such as birch-bark Gilgit manuscripts, Tattvartha Sutra, Ramayana, and Srimad Bhagwad Gita), official files of the government, proscribed literature under colonial regime, private manuscripts of eminent personalities, as well as from the rich collection of rare books held in the NAI library,'' the culture ministry said in a statement.

The exhibition would include among the most ancient in the world -- the Gilgit manuscripts, the oldest surviving manuscript collection in India. The birch bark folios (documents written on pieces of inner layer of bark of birch trees; birch bark is known for its resistance to decay and decomposition) contain both canonical (sacred) and non-canonical Buddhist works that throw light on the evolution of Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Mongolian, Machu and Tibetan religious-philosophical literature, it said.

According to consensus, they were written between the 5th-6th centuries AD. The Gilgit manuscripts were discovered in three stages in the Naupur village (Gilgit region), and first announced by archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein in 1931, the statement said.

The exhibition will further shed light on the vast corpus of archival records pertaining to variegated languages spoken across the length and breadth of the nation, it added.

This exhibition is an endeavour to commemorate the treasured heritage of India's linguistic diversity as a nation, it said. According to an estimate, out of 7,111 languages spoken globally, about 788 languages are spoken in India alone, the ministry said.

India is thus one of the four most linguistically diversified countries in the world, along with Papa New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria, it added.

The exhibition will be on view for public viewing till July 8, from 10 am to 5 pm, on all days, including on national holidays, the officials said.