Photo Courtesy: nenews
Guwahati: Gauhati University launched a salvage mission this week. Experts are racing to stop the decay of rare Sanchipat manuscripts soaked by recent floods at the Medhijan Shri Shri Gajala Satra in Sivasagar district. The 18th-century institution holds a massive collection of texts detailing Assam’s religious and literary past.
A specialized team is handling the delicate work. Medini Mohan Gogoi from the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies and Dhanjit Talukdar from the Krishna Kanta Handiqui Library are leading the recovery. The team carefully separates individual pages. They clean the folios and apply chemical treatments to halt fungal growth. Time is against them.
The conservation drive targets a range of historic documents. The list includes Kirtan, Bhakti Ratnavali, Bhakti Premawali, various Charit-Puthis, and Kathasar. The crew is also prioritizing specific aging relics, including a 300-year-old Ramayana, a 263-year-old Kirtan manuscript, and the Dasham.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Nani Gopal Mahanta oversees the project. He argues that this work goes beyond simple archive maintenance. During the launch, he stated, "manuscripts are not merely historical documents but living testimonies of Assam's knowledge traditions, civilisation, culture and identity."
The university views this effort as a moral and academic duty. They aim to secure these records for future generations. Protecting these pieces helps lock in the state’s intellectual heritage before water damage takes its final toll.
Comments