Posted on 07/04/2005 9:17:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
New Delhi -- In the walled quarters of the old city, a Sanskrit language scholar walks purposefully along the packed, narrow and twisting alleyways, jostling past rows of jewelry shoppers, cycle rickshaws, bullock carts and beggars.
When he comes upon an old temple with an ornately carved doorway, he stops, sweating profusely in the sweltering sun.
"Do you have any ancient handwritten manuscripts here?" Dilipkumar Rana, the scholar, asks in a whisper. The stunned temple manager nods. "The government is doing a survey of old manuscripts," Rana says.
"But I have very few left now," temple manager Jaipal Jain says. "I threw many old manuscripts into the river last year."
"Why?" Rana asks anxiously.
"I had put them in the attic. Last year during the monsoon, the ceiling leaked. And the water destroyed many of the manuscripts," Jain says, sighing. "White ants attacked some others."
And so it goes, as India's 30,000 manuscript hunters fan out nationwide, seeking the nation's heritage in old temples, madrassas, mosques, monasteries, libraries and homes.
Launched two years ago, the National Mission for Manuscripts is a five- year project to catalog for the first time India's ancient documentary wealth and ensure that basic conservation practices are followed to halt their rapid decay. Officials say that India is the largest repository of manuscripts in the world, with an estimated 5 million texts in hundreds of languages.
Linguistic scholars and history students involved in this adventurous hunt for ancient volumes use not only expertise but also social skills, coaxing and cultural sensitivity to gain access to manuscripts.
After Rana takes off his shoes and washes his hands, he prays at the shrine. Then Jain leads him to the temple's dimly lighted manuscript room.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
ping
Why stop at 4,000 years? That's not enough back to the Kurukshetra War. In India, 4000 years is practically recent history.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
fasciitis
ping
don'tja just hate it when people clean out the attic, and throw it into the river?
add me to your lists please :)
Will do, but am now still at work.
Those old guys should throw themselves into the river more than once a year. :'D
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