Tezpur: The Centre for Assamese Studies, Tezpur University, on Tuesday released rare digitised historical documents of Assam.

Ranjit Kumar Dev Goswami, Srimanta Sankardeva Chair, had led the initiative.

In a programme held at the council hall of the university, vice-chancellor Prof. M.M. Sarma released the documents, which can be now accessed through the university's website.

The centre, under the leadership of Dev Goswami, Juri Dutta and research associate Sanjib Deka, undertook the massive project of digitalising about 4,000 old Assamese manuscripts and printed books. Several rare and old Assamese books and manuscripts, including the first edition of The Kirtana and the Namaghosa published by Haribilas Agarwala in 1876, rare sanchi-paat manuscripts of Dasam Skandha Bhagavata (Barpeta Xatra), Ananta Kandali's Ramayana (Barpeta Xatra), Namaghosa (Barhampur Binapani Library, Jamuguri), the first edition of Hemchandra Barua's Hema Kosa (1900), the personal diaries of Padmanath Gohain Baruah (1871-1946) and K.K. Handiqui (1898-1982), many hand-written manuscripts of Jyoti Prasad Agarwala (1903-1951), Chandrabala Barua (1907-1983), Maheswar Neog (1915-1995), Praphulladatta Goswami (1919-1994) and others, are part of the collection.

The centre also digitalised important official letters and documents relating to the establishment of Gauhati University in 1948. Many of the books from local libraries, like the Tezpur Government M.V. School Library, Barhampur Binapani Library, Jamugurihaat and Media Archives, Guwahati, particularly its Benudhar Sarma collection, have also been digitalised.

Speaking on the occasion, Dev Goswami described many anecdotes from the collections and said the digitalisation would help other researchers and academics immensely. He called these collections gold dust and said after the digitalisation even documents in poor condition could be read.