Bihar chief secy asks district officials to expedite digitisation of manuscripts

Patna, Apr 9 (PTI) Bihar Chief Secretary Pratyaya Amrit on Thursday directed senior officials to constitute district-level committees to review and expedite the digitisation of manuscripts under the ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’.

Amrit chaired a high-level review meeting with district officials here in Patna.

Announced last year by the central government, the ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’ aims to preserve and digitise ancient manuscripts.

According to a statement issued by the state’s art and culture department, rare manuscripts housed in government and non-government institutions, monasteries, temples, educational establishments and private libraries are being identified and catalogued “on a war footing”.

“All district magistrates should constitute ‘Gyan Bharatam

Mission Committees’ and conduct regular reviews of the programme’s progress,” Amrit said.

They should also strengthen institutional collaboration with universities, museums and private collectors to ensure wider participation, he said.

Bihar ranks fourth in the country with 4,71,802 manuscripts, while Rajasthan tops the list, the statement said.

Within the state, Madhubani district leads with 3,70,926 manuscripts, followed by Patna, Darbhanga, and Nalanda, it said.

Artificial intelligence-based technologies and cloud systems are being used to develop a national digital repository to enable editing, translation and multilingual publication of rare texts, officials said.

Institutions such as the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Khudabakhsh Oriental Public Library, and the Bodh Gaya Math have been identified as major clusters and coordination centres for digitised preservation of manuscripts, they added. PTI SUK RBT