A few years ago, the idol of Nataraja, the presiding deity of Puthoor temple in Tamil Nadu, was returned by the order of a British court. The idol had been stolen and smuggled out of the country. But there are hundreds of cases of Indian precious heritages which were donated or “gifted” away to the outsiders as part of politics and treaty. The Kohinoor is a classic case.
Recently, a rare manuscript of Atarvaveda, written in Sharda script was returned to India, in CDs. The original manuscript in palm leaves occupied the space in 154 CDs. So voluminous it is. It is housed in the Tubinger University Library, Germany. What makes the manuscript precious is the fact that this is one of two recensions of Atarvaveda which have survived. Originally there were nine recensions. Only those of Pipalada and Shaunaka have survived.
This manuscript, dated 900 B.C, reached Germany in the late 1800s. Prof. Rudolph von Roth, a German Indologist, who had heard about the existence of the manuscript wrote to its custodian, the Maharaja of Kashmir, seeking it. The Maharaja refused to give it. He then asked for a Devnagari version of the manuscript. The Maharaja employed a few people to make two copies of the manuscript in Devnagari. When Prof. Roth read it, he realized that it was one of the rarest manuscripts. He approached a senior British official, who procured it for him after several rounds of negotiations with the Kashmir King. It was returned to India in CDs by the company which digitized it, e-ternals.com.
The NDA government had launched the National Mission for Manuscripts, in 2003 and had prepared the blue-print for the Mission for Intangible Heritages. Together, the Missions were to collect and preserve the valuable heritages of India, which now lie scattered all over the world. According to a conservative estimate, there are over two lakh Indian manuscripts outside India. Over 67 per cent of all available manuscripts are in Sanskrit. The task of retrieving our heritages is the duty of each Indian, that’s the call of the time.
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