Bhubaneswar, July 12: A couple recently gifted a collection of over 100-year-old books to the National Archives of India’s Bhubaneswar chapter.

The books carry information about the culture, lifestyle, society and educational status of Odisha as well as nearby regions during the British era.

The books, collected by educationists Bharati Mohapatra and her husband V.B. Shastry during their PhD days for research work, were published between 1857 and 1954 and provide information since 1813 onwards about the Bengal-Bihar region under which Odisha was a province then. These are now being conserved with appropriate technical process at the National Archives office.

“These books are mostly reports of official research work on education system, Baptist missionary work, history and geography of certain places in Odisha and Bengal. The reports were published by British officials,” said Lalatendu Das Mohapatra, officer-in-charge of the National Archives, Eastern Circle.

“They are of immense importance from the heritage point of view as well as for research work by historians. So, we are conducting the fumigation and treatment of the papers with chemicals to preserve the valuable books and documents gifted to us,” he said.

Apart from reports by British officers, there are interesting vernacular books on teaching and education, penned by leading Odia educationists such as Radhanath Ray. Such books include Byakarana (grammar), Oria Composition, Physical Geography by Radhanath Ray and History and Geography of Ungool by Bhagwan Charan Das, all of these published in Cuttack and Balasore between 1876 and 1895.

These illustrate the impact of the revolution against the British on education since the leaders wished to make the public more aware through literacy.

“We had collected these books from various sources during our PhD. Some were lying idle at the Radhanath Institute for Advanced Studies in Education in Cuttack, the circle inspector’s office in areas around Cuttack, the Collectorate office in Sambalpur and so on,” said Bharati Mohapatra.

“Even our children used these materials for their studies and now we wish they are put to good use by other researchers,” she said.

The couple have also donated thousands of old books and magazines to the libraries of various educational institutes in the city.

Some other well-researched books in the collection include Vernacular Education in Bengal between 1813 to 1912 by Herbert Alick Stark, The Administration of Bengal (1903-08) by Andrew Fraser, Manual of teaching (1881), Reports on Improvements of Schools (1857), Indian Education Policy (1913), State of Education in Bengal (1835 to 1838), History of Sermapore College.

Interesting documents like an 1861 map of the Bengal-Bihar division that showcases the physical boundaries of Odisha then, are also a part of the gifted set. These will be of much help to conduct a comprehensive documentation of the state’s 19th century history, feel historians.

“The detailed information available in these documents is of great significance to record Odisha’s history during the 19th century, especially the aspects of culture and education,” said eminent historian Gaganendranath Das.