The New Nation - Internet Edition

THOUSANDS of manuscripts are reportedly lying in the Dhaka University's central library for decades with the authorities apparently taking no steps to 'identify' or 'decode' the rare and precious documents. According to the library officials, there were over 30,000 old manuscripts in various languages including ancient Bangla, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Maithali - and most of them are yet to be identified. Only 60 manuscripts have been deciphered so far while about 14,000 lie unidentified. In fact, the actual number of manuscripts could not be determined, as many were still unidentified, one manuscript researcher of the library was quoted as saying.

University researchers, surprisingly, have shown little interest in studying the ancient and valuable scripts containing a history of this region. MPhil and PhD students mostly worked on those that have been deciphered. In last 15 years, only eight manuscripts were decoded. But some foreign researchers have come here to work on those. The local researchers engaging themselves in the task speak of only 'identifying manuscripts, and not decoding them.' The library authorities had recently sent letters to a number of language departments to raise awareness and interest among students, and inspire research into the documents, but the response was disappointing.

The university authorities have not even bothered to preserve a collection of literature relating to the manuscripts. The Bangla Academy published a number of books over the years, but many of them were not available in the library. A few books however, have been published by Dhaka University based on some manuscripts. Fund crunch is one of the reasons for the situation. The Dhaka University began collection of rare documents of the region shortly after its establishment in 1921. A committee formed in 1925-26 collected a large number of old texts from various places in this subcontinent. The inertia in decoding manuscripts should go.