Asiatic Society Scans Over 2,000 Manuscripts Under Gyan Bharatam Mission
Significant Manuscript Digitization Efforts
New Delhi, March 30: The Asiatic Society in Kolkata has successfully scanned 2,033 manuscripts, totaling 146,099 pages, as of March 23. This initiative is part of its role as a Cluster Centre for manuscript scanning under the Gyan Bharatam Mission, as reported to the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Minister for Culture and Tourism, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, provided details in a written statement regarding the safety protocols at the Society. He highlighted that the institution has implemented essential disaster preparedness strategies, including a fire safety system and established Standard Operating Procedures.
Shekhawat noted that the Society maintains close collaboration with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Fire and Emergency Services Department of West Bengal, and local police authorities.
To date, the Society has digitized a total of 11,528 manuscripts, which amounts to 572,890 pages. The Minister explained that the Grant-in-aid from the Ministry supports the core functions of the Asiatic Society, with ongoing assessments of its needs based on the scale and preservation requirements of its collections.
He also mentioned that the heritage building of the Asiatic Society falls under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which oversees necessary repair and restoration efforts.
The Society has established adequate temperature and humidity control systems within its Museum, where manuscripts, rare books, and artifacts are preserved. Regular inspections of the conditions of these rare items are conducted by cataloguers and other officials, supervised by the Curator.
Furthermore, the Society operates its own Conservation and Binding Section to manage conservation and binding tasks. Since the establishment of the Manuscript Conservation Centre in 2022, preventive conservation has been performed on 35,624 folios, alongside curative conservation for 4,596 folios of rare manuscripts. Cataloguing remains a routine activity within the Museum and Archive Section.