National Mission For Manuscript

National Mission For Manuscript

(GS PAPER-1, CULTURE, AND HERITAGE

Source- Ministry of Culture)

Context-

The National Mission for Manuscripts was established in February 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India. 

Objective-

  • A unique project in its program and mandate, the Mission seeks to unearth and preserve the vast manuscript wealth of India. 

  • India possesses an estimate of ten million manuscripts, probably the largest collection in the world. 

  • These cover a variety of themes, textures and aesthetics, scripts, languages, calligraphies, illuminations, and illustrations.

  • The Mission has the mandate of identifying, documenting, conserving, and making accessible the manuscript heritage of India. 

  • We see a national effort in the form of a mission for manuscripts as a logical, radical, and urgent response to a very contemporary challenge- of reclaiming the inheritance contained in manuscripts, often in a poor state of preservation.

Approach-

  • National Mission for Manuscripts is a National level comprehensive initiative that caters to the need of conserving manuscripts and disseminating knowledge contained therein. 

  • NMM is working towards fulfilling its motto, ‘conserving the past for the future. 

  • It has emerged as a movement, undoubtedly the most popular and effective among all the heritage conservation initiatives in the country.

National Database of Manuscripts, Kriti Sampada

  • National Mission for Manuscript’s biggest and most ambitious project is to create a database of all Indian manuscripts in the country and abroad. The National Database of Manuscripts, Kriti Sampada, is available on the internet through the Mission’s website. 

  • It aims to document, as far as possible, each manuscript, whether in a museum, library, temple, madrassa or a private collection. 

  • The Mission’s biggest objective is to discover and document such manuscripts for posterity.

The Mission receives data on manuscripts from three different sources

  1. Excellence as heritage

  2. Contribution to India’s intellectual history

  3. Vulnerability

  4. Belonging to ancient or medieval past

Conservation of Manuscripts-

  • Any direct or indirect action on a damaged or undamaged manuscript or collection of manuscripts, for increasing their life is conserved. This can be Preventive or Curative.

  • Preventive conservation seeks to reduce the future risk of deterioration. It includes measures such as controlling the temperature and humidity of the storage area of manuscripts and regular inspection of the condition of the manuscript/collection.

  • Curative conservation is any direct action on the manuscript(s) to prevent active deterioration. For instance, fumigation of the manuscript(s) infested with insects.

  • Manuscripts are sometimes subjected to restoration. This is different from conservation as the former aims to make the manuscript(s) look as close as possible to its original form.

  •  This is mainly to enhance their visual appeal. This may involve steps like repainting illustrations and removing pencil marks from a folio.

Download Plutus IAS Daily Current Affairs of 10th August 2021

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