Budhindranath Pathak (extreme left) with officials of the library at Auni Ati Satra, Majuli

Sept. 14: The National Mission for Manuscripts, New Delhi, in collaboration with Krishna Kanta Handique Library, Manuscript Conservation Centre, Gauhati University, has organised a state-level workshop on Preservative Conservation of Manuscript from December 13 to 18 in the library.

The objective of the seminar, the first of its kind to be organised by the library, is to train the representatives of institutes and private preservators of manuscripts.

Budhindranath Pathak, a manuscript expert from Majuli, will take part in the seminar. Pathak will demonstrate the art of preparing sanchipat from the bark of the Agaru or Sanchi tree, found in the hilly terrain of Karbi Anglong, Nagaon and Manipur.

Experts from the Indian Council of Conservation Institute in Orissa and Lucknow will also participate in the seminar.

Assam is a treasure trove of manuscripts from the past. The Krishna Kanta Handique Library, which has been identified as a manuscript resource and conservation centre for Assam and Meghalaya under the National Mission for Manuscripts, has set up a conservation laboratory to scientifically preserve the manuscripts. The mission has collected thousands of manuscripts from the various satras, organisations and private repositories and has stored them in the library.

The library has a grand collection of 4,400 old and rare manuscripts on hand-made papers like tala patra, sanchipat and so on. The library has manuscripts in Sanskrit, early Assamese, Bengali, Nepali, Tai and Burmese, which are records of the cultural heritage and the early civilisation of the region. Thirty people will take part in the workshop. The participants will have to fill up an application form obtained from the co-ordinator of the library and submitted it by December 4.