National Archives of India organizes exhibition ‘Hamari Bhasha, Hamari Virasat’ on the 75th International Archives Day
National Archives of
India organizes exhibition ‘Hamari Bhasha, Hamari Virasat’ on the 75th
International Archives Day
Younger generations must get introduced to Gilgit Manuscripts which is the
oldest surviving manuscript collection in India: Meenakashi Lekhi
Minister of State for Culture, Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi inaugurated an
exhibition under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) titled "Hamari Bhasha,
Hamari Virasat” today to celebrate 75th International
Archives Day at National Archives of India, New Delhi.
This exhibition is an endeavour to commemorate the treasured heritage of
India's linguistic diversity as a Nation: “राष्ट्र एक भाषा अनेक” India is blessed with extraordinary
language diversity. According to an estimate out of 7,111 languages spoken
globally, about 788 languages are spoken in India alone. India is thus one of
the four most linguistically diversified
countries in the world, along with Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
On the occasion Minister of State for Culture, Meenakashi Lekhi said ,
“On the occasion of International Archives Day, National Archives of India has
made available the Gilgit Manuscripts written between the 5" -6"
centuries CE, which is the oldest surviving manuscript collection in India. She
also said that the birch bark folios documents written on pieces of inner layer
of the bark of birch trees were found in Kashmir region and contain both
canonical and non-canonical Jain and Buddhist works that throw light on the
evolution of many religious-philosophical literature. She also added that
Younger generation must get introduced to Gilgit Manuscripts.
She also said, “ I also congratulate the National Archives of
India for making approximately more than 72,000 manuscripts available at the
premises and through the process of digitization it will reach all over the
world, which will particularly help our younger generation to get
introduced to these manuscripts.”
The Exhibition presents a selection of original manuscripts drawn from
the annals of the archival repository (such as the birch-bark Gilgit
manuscripts, Tattvartha Sutra, Ramayana, and Srimad Bhagwad Gita, among
others), official files of the government, proscribed literature under the
clonial regime, private manuscripts of eminent personalities, as well as from
the rich collection of rare books held in the NAI Library.
The Exhibition
includes among the most ancient in the world —The Gilgit Manuscripts were
discovered in three stages in the Naupur village (Gilgit region), and first
announced by archaeologist Sir “Aurel Stein in the year 1931. Not only this,
the exhibition further sheds light on the vast corpus of archival records
pertaining to variegated languages spoken across the length and breadth of the
nation.
As we are celebrating 75 years of our independence, through this
exhibition the National Archives of India pay tribute to the linguistic
diversity of our nation. The languages of India have from the earliest times
been a subject of interest to not only those who spoke them, but to foreigners
as well, who conducted a serious study of Indian languages (for instance, the
Linguistic Survey of India). The exhibition will remain open for public viewing
till 08 July 2023 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on each day including Saturday,
Sunday and National Holidays.
The National Archives of India was established on 11 March 1891 at
Kolkata (Calcutta) as the Imperial Record Department. Following the transfer of
the capital from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, the present building of the National
Archives of India was constructed in 1926 which was designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyens. The transfer of all records from Calcutta to New Delhi was completed
in 1937.The National Archives of India is also the nodal agency for the
implementation of the Public Records Act, 1993 and Public Record Rules, 1997.
National Archives of India has at present in its repositories a vast collection of records, which include files. volumes, maps, bills assented to by the President of India, treaties, rare manuscripts, oriental records, private papers, cartographic records, important collection of Gazettes and Gazetteers, Census records, assembly and parliament debates, proscribed literature, travel accounts, etc. A major chunk of Oriental records are in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, etc.