A Case study of Manuscripts preserved in B.C.Gupta Memorial Library of Guru Charan College in collaboration with National Manuscript Mission : A detailed study conducted by Shrimati Jayanti Chakravorty

1. International Seminar on
Colonial note from the
continuity of Culture :
Emerging Study of
Manuscriptology
organized by :
Department of Bengali
Assam University
Silchar
1st March, 2012 to 3rd March, 2012

2. Manuscripts Preserved in
B.C.Gupta Memorial Central
Library at Silchar
in Barak Valley : A Survey
Presented by :
Jayanti Chakravorty
Library and Information Assistant
Central Library, National Institute of Technology
Silchar

3. Definition of Manuscript
The word ‘Manuscript’ is a derivative from the Latin
Phrase, manu scriptum, which means ‘written by hand’.
The Antiquities Art Treasures Act, 1972 defines manuscript as a
Record of scientific, historical, literary or aesthetic value and which
has been in existence for not less than 75 years.
So a manuscript can be defined as,
• a hand written document
• which has scientific, historical, literary or aesthetic value and
• which is at least 75years old.

4. Manuscripts treasure of India:
The glorious past of the great Indian culture lies in her
ancient manuscripts.
India possesses an estimate of five million manuscripts,
probably the largest collection in the world.
Since ancient times, the Indians produced high class
painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry. They
wrote learned treaties on various subjects, such as
Grammar, Philology, Logic, Philosophy, Politics,
Astronomy, Medicine and Surgery, Physics and
Chemistry. They left behind sure proof of their amazing
skill in Engineering, Irrigation, Ship-building and in
many other arts and crafts.

5. It is estimated that out of 5 million Indain
manuscripts, 60 thousand manuscripts are lying
in European Countries and 150 thousand in
Asian and South Asian countries.
A total of 1 million, out of the 5 million
manuscripts have been recorded in catalogues
till now.
Language-wise percentage of manuscripts
being, Sanskrit - 67%,
Other Indian Languages 25% and
Arabic, Persian and Tibetan 8%

6. National Mission for Manuscripts
The Mission set up in 2003, by the Government of India,
endeavours to un-earth and preserve the vast manuscript
wealth of the country lying scattered in various institutions
and private collections.
The Mission alongwith Indira Gandhi National Centre for
the Arts is working with specially identified
Manuscript Resource Centres – MRCs and
Manuscript Conservation Centres - MCCs
all over the country with the objective of locating,
documenting, conserving and disseminating the knowledge
content of India’s manuscripts. B.C. Gupta Memorial
Central Library, Silchar is such a centre for Manuscript
Resource and Conservation in the Barak Valley.

7. Barak Valley : A brief introduction
Physio-graphically, historically and socio-culturally, the valley
is an extension of undivided Bengal of pre-independent India,
known as Surma Valley, comprising of the Districts of Sylhet and
Cachar in the Assam Province of British India.
With hill tracks on three sides and plain land opening only in the
west the valley demarcates the natural border between the
riverine Bengal and the hilly Northeast – a factor having a major
historical significance on the growth of the valley’s socio-cultural
and educational fabric. In Epical period of Indian history, when
Aryan Civilization marched into Greater Bengal from the North
Western India and a cultural synthesis took place to develop a
great Bengali culture, the same trend, in its east-ward march,
advanced towards the Ganga-Padma Basin and to its extension,
to Surma-Barak Valley. Thus this Valley, surrounded by mighty
hills, remained for a long period, the last outpost of the Aryan
Civilization in the east.

8. Manuscript Preservation in Barak Valley
The history of Manuscript preservation in institutional
level
in Barak Valley dates back to 1910 when a Manuscript
Preservation Centre was opened in the Normal School at
Silchar at the initiative of the then School Inspector Late
Aghornath Adhikari with active assistance from other
re-knowned teachres of the school and scholars like Late
Ramesh Chandra Bhattacharjee, Late Abdul Bari, Late
Tarini Charan Das, Late Jagannath Deb and others. The
Centre functioned actively for two decades approximately
and had a preservation of nearly 200 manuscripts, written
mostly in Sansakrit and Bengali and a few in Persian.

9. B.C.Gupta Memorial Library,G.C.College, Silchar
Established in 1935, this library is the oldest
academic library of this region. It has been serving
the higher education students, teachers, research
scholars and people from other walks of life since
long past, much before the Public Library system
or any sort of library service was set up in this
remote part of the country. This Library has a
holding of nearly 40,000 Print Vol. and 50,000 E-
books. The Library introduced Open Access
System in 2003, E-Library facilities in 2005, &
Digitization initiative in 2010.

10. The Manuscript Resource and Conservation Centre of
the Library is assigned to operate in 12 Districts of
Assam, 3 of them in Barak Valley and 9 in Brahmaputra
Valley. The Centre, operating since 2005 runs various
programmes in survey, documentation and outreach
events. It has surveyed and documented approximately
10,000 manuscripts in Jorhat, Sivsagar, Golaghat and
North Lakhimpur districts and provided preventive
conservation treatment to approx. 3000 rare Vaishnavait
manuscripts at Majuli island. The centre has surveyed
and documented approx. 2700 manuscripts in Barak
Valley. Conservation activities of the Centre started in
December, 2010 and so far, 91 rare manuscripts have
been preserved and accessed.

11. SURVEY OF THE PRESERVED MANUSCRIPTS
Labeling : The core of the Library’s Manuscript collection comes from the
donation of 9 individuals and 1 family. All the Donors are inhabitants of
Barak Valley or descendents of scholars hailing from the Surma Valley in
East Bengal. These gifts are reflected on the labels of the manuscripts as
well as in the Accession Register. The Donors and number of Manuscripts
donated are reflected hereunder :
Shri Amitabha Chakraborty 35
Dr. Bidyut Kumar Bhattacharjee 16
Shri Shib Sadhan Bhattacharjee 15
Shri Mrinmoy Chakraborty 4
Shri Rajarshi Chakraborty 3
Dr. Usha Ranjan Bhattacharjee 2
Shri Shankar Chakraborty 2
Shri Umananda Bhattacharjee 2
Late Kali Prasanna Bhattacharjee 1
Family of Late Mukunda Das Bhattacharjee 11

12. Types & Contents of the Manuscripts
The manuscript collection of the Library reflects a broad outline of
the kind of books people of this area wrote, compiled or edited
during the early eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. The
manuscripts include Books on Vedas, Puranas, Smriti, Darshan,
Mantra, Tantra, Jyotish, Ayurveda, Literature and Sanskrit
Grammar.
No books on Science, History, Geography, Sociology, Fine-arts and
such other subjects have yet been procured. However, the centre has
just started its activities and with the present accession of 91
manuscripts in total, no conclusive assertion can be made.
The quality of the manuscripts are fairly good. The style, the hand-
writing and the layout of the pages bear the testimony of sincerity
and devotion of the authors or the scribes.

13. Subject-wise Classification of Manuscripts is as under :
Veda 1
Purana 11
Smriti Shastra 35
Darshana - Nyaya Shastra 1
Dharshana – Shrimad Bhagawad Gita 3
Mantra 6
Tantra 4
Jyotish 3
Ayurveda 5
Literature 8
Sanskrit Grammar 12
Assorted manuscript of Smriti, Jyotish, Ayurveda 1
Un-classified 1
Total 91

14. The only manuscript on Veda relates to Karma
Kanda of Shukla-Yajur Veda.
All the 11 manuscripts on Puranas are from the
Markeyanda Purana, 9 of them are on Chandi, 1
on Ruchi Stava and 1 being a Chandi Shapoddhar
Vidhi. It indicates that there was a prominent
Shakti cult of worship-form prevalent in this area.

15. The majority of the manuscripts accessed are on
Smriti Shastra, a total of 35 of them. Though
the term Smriti in a broader sense covers all
Hindu Shastras except the Vedas, here the term
refers to the compiled codes or manuals of
Hindu life. Out of the 35 manuscripts on Smriti
Shastra, 17 are on Puja Vidhi, 7 on Shhradhha
Vidhi, 4 on Brata Vidhi, 2 on Dana Vidhi, 2 on
Samskar Vidhi and 3 are of general category.
Bratas are generally observed by the women
and availability of manuscripts on Brata Vidhi
indicates that the women also took equal parts
in performing socio-religious rites in this
region.

16. One manuscript in the archive is on Dol Yatra Vidhi by
Raghunandan Bhattacharjee, edited by Madhusudan Deva
Sharma. Raghunandan’s Smriti is of a much later age
than Manu’s and it is applicable particularly to the Hindu
society of Bengal. From these findings it can be asserted
that the Surma-Barak valley is, literarily and culturally, a
natural extension of Greater Bengal.
There are 4 manuscripts on Darshan – 1 on Nyaya
Darshan and the rest 3 are on Shri Shrimad Bhagavad
Gita, an appertain from the Mahabharata.

17. There are in total 6 manuscripts on Mantras –
Gangastakam, Vatuk Stava, Chandika Shapoddhara,
Mahimna Stostram and 2 anthologies of various mantras.
The 4 manuscripts on Tantra are basically guidelines for
certain Kabach preparation – 1 manuscript is on
Bhutadamani Kabach, 1 on Sarva Siddhi Pradayaka
Abhisheka Vidhi and 2 anthologies of Kabachpreparation.
There are in total 8 manuscripts on Jyotish and Ayurveda
and 1 manuscript on assorted subjects. The availability of
these manuscripts show that there were scholars in these
subjects in this area in ancient times.

18. There are as many as 20 manuscripts on
linguistics – 12 on literature and 8 on Sanskrit
Grammar, a testimony of the fact that the
academic atmosphere of the Barak-Surma
valley was very rich since the earlier times.
Out of the 12 manuscripts on Literature, 3 are
on Epics – the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata, 3 on Narrative Literature – the
Mangal Kavyas and Pachalis, 1 on Niti Shloka
and 1 on Kavya.

19. Language & Script of the Manuscripts and the materials
used for writing
Out of 91 manuscripts, the language of 85 manuscripts is
Sanskrit, 5 are written in Bengali and 1 in both of the languages.
Of the 85 manuscripts in Sanskrit, 84 are written in Archaic
Bengali script and 1 in both Archaic and Modern Bengali
script. Of the 5 manuscripts written in Bengali language, 3 are
written in Archaic script, while 2 are in modern script. The
script of 1 bi-lingual manuscript is Archaic Bengali.
In middle ages, the materials used for writing manuscripts were
tree skins, tree leaves, paper and mainly parchments – made
from the skins of animals. But in our survey not a single
manuscript was found on parchment – they are either on Tree
Skin or Sachi Patra or on Paper.

20. Time Period of the Manuscripts
The year of writing the manuscripts could be
traced out only in case of 12 manuscripts; the
years range from 1720 AD to 1886 AD which
covers a long period of nearly two centuries. The
oldest manuscript, written in 1720 AD belongs to
Karma Kanda of the Smriti Shastra – a
Shhraddha Vidhi written by Maniram Sharma.
This manuscript points out to the fact that the
wave of Aryanization came to this part of the
country long back, at least in the late part of the
seventeenth century or even earlier to that.

21. General Observation
Production of a manuscript required intricate and
laborious craftsmanship. Though the details of the
process varied in different regions, the materials and
methods were almost the same, sincerity and devotion
being the yardstick of perfection.
Availability of as many as 20 manuscripts on literature
and grammar brings forth the fact that the academic and
literary pursuits of the area was of a very high order and
as pointed out earlier, this area was always been a part of
the greater Bengal – socially, culturally and emotionally.

22. Conclusion
The manuscripts in possession of the G.C.College-
M.C.C are unique in their contents and value. They
offer fascinating glimpses into the ancient culture of the
region. A detailed study of these manuscripts will open
up many avenues of exploration into the beliefs and
values of the society in those periods of Indian history.
Proper dissemination of the contents in the manuscripts
would open up new arena of knowledge and variegated
insight in to the socio-religious-educational background
of the entire area.

23. THANK YOU
- Jayanti Chakravorty