Thousands of manuscripts lie neglected at DU central library for decades
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Thousands of manuscripts have been lying in Dhaka University central library for decades with authorities apparently taking no steps to identify or decode the precious documents, reports bdnews24.com.
Officials of the library said there were over 30,000 old texts written in languages including Ancient Bangla, Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, Arabic and Maithili, most of them yet to be identified.
Syeda Farida Parvin, deputy librarian of the library, told the news agency that only 60 manuscripts had been deciphered so far while about 14,000 lay unidentified.
Assistant librarian and manuscript researcher Syed Ali Akbar said the actual number of documents could not be worked out, as many were still unidentified. Researchers at the university have shown little interest in studying any of the ancient and valuable scripts containing a history of this region. Those that have been deciphered were mostly worked on by MPhil and PhD students.
Officials said only eight manuscripts were decoded in the last 15 years. "Dhaka University researchers hardly work on deciphering the meaning of the texts. But some foreign researchers have come here to study them," Farida Parvin said.
Shahin Sultana, a researcher at the library, said: "Our task is to identify the manuscripts, not to decode them."
Farida Parvin said the library authorities have recently sent letters to a number of language departments to make the students aware of and interested in the documents, and to inspire them to conduct research into these manuscripts. But the response was disappointing, she said.
Library officials said the authorities have not even bothered to preserve a collection of literature relating to the texts. Bangla Academy has published a number of books over the years but many of them were not available at the library, though a few books have also been published by DU based on some manuscripts.
Farida Parvin said fund restraint was one of the reasons for this deplorable situation.
"We don't have the money we need to publish and preserve the documents in book form," she said.
Those who have published their research on the manuscripts have done so through the Bangla Academy on their own, she added.
The University of Dhaka began collecting rare documents of the region shortly after its establishment in 1921. A committee formed in 1925-26 collected a great number of old texts from various places in the Indian subcontinent.
Past landowners, researchers and academics including Khan Bahadur Kazimuddin Ahmed Siddiqui, Hekim Habibur Rahman, Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad, Aminur Rahman, Dr Satyendranath Roy, Krishnadash Acharya, Principal Ibrahim Khan had donated a large number of manuscripts to the DU library over the decades.
In 1983, collections were gathered together from Rammala Library in Comilla, Kishoreganj Public Library, Kendrio Muslim Sahitya Sangraha Kendra in Sylhet, Bangladesh Asiatic Society, Nazimuddin Muslim Hall Library, Srihatta Sangskrita College, Buddha Bihar in Comilla and Ramu Temple in Cox's Bazar. In 2007, Professor Ahmad Sharif Sangrahashala donated 406 manuscripts to the library.
Professor Syed Anwar Hossain, who teaches history at DU, said the oldest manuscript preserved in the library was Sarada Tilak. It was written in 1439 during the Pal dynasty.
The professor said we could know a great deal more about our history if the documents were deciphered. All those texts that had been identified had yet to be posted on the DU website, he added.
In the past, the university had sent some of the rare manuscripts to reputed libraries across the world for research purposes. But that process has now come to a stop.
The authorities recently held a three-day exhibition of part of the collection and organised a seminar in March. But there was no talk on how to identify, decode or otherwise take further action on the valuable texts.
Professor Mofakkharul Islam of the History Department blamed a lack of will and commitment for the neglected state of these old manuscripts.
Officials of the library said there were over 30,000 old texts written in languages including Ancient Bangla, Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, Arabic and Maithili, most of them yet to be identified.
Syeda Farida Parvin, deputy librarian of the library, told the news agency that only 60 manuscripts had been deciphered so far while about 14,000 lay unidentified.
Assistant librarian and manuscript researcher Syed Ali Akbar said the actual number of documents could not be worked out, as many were still unidentified. Researchers at the university have shown little interest in studying any of the ancient and valuable scripts containing a history of this region. Those that have been deciphered were mostly worked on by MPhil and PhD students.
Officials said only eight manuscripts were decoded in the last 15 years. "Dhaka University researchers hardly work on deciphering the meaning of the texts. But some foreign researchers have come here to study them," Farida Parvin said.
Shahin Sultana, a researcher at the library, said: "Our task is to identify the manuscripts, not to decode them."
Farida Parvin said the library authorities have recently sent letters to a number of language departments to make the students aware of and interested in the documents, and to inspire them to conduct research into these manuscripts. But the response was disappointing, she said.
Library officials said the authorities have not even bothered to preserve a collection of literature relating to the texts. Bangla Academy has published a number of books over the years but many of them were not available at the library, though a few books have also been published by DU based on some manuscripts.
Farida Parvin said fund restraint was one of the reasons for this deplorable situation.
"We don't have the money we need to publish and preserve the documents in book form," she said.
Those who have published their research on the manuscripts have done so through the Bangla Academy on their own, she added.
The University of Dhaka began collecting rare documents of the region shortly after its establishment in 1921. A committee formed in 1925-26 collected a great number of old texts from various places in the Indian subcontinent.
Past landowners, researchers and academics including Khan Bahadur Kazimuddin Ahmed Siddiqui, Hekim Habibur Rahman, Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad, Aminur Rahman, Dr Satyendranath Roy, Krishnadash Acharya, Principal Ibrahim Khan had donated a large number of manuscripts to the DU library over the decades.
In 1983, collections were gathered together from Rammala Library in Comilla, Kishoreganj Public Library, Kendrio Muslim Sahitya Sangraha Kendra in Sylhet, Bangladesh Asiatic Society, Nazimuddin Muslim Hall Library, Srihatta Sangskrita College, Buddha Bihar in Comilla and Ramu Temple in Cox's Bazar. In 2007, Professor Ahmad Sharif Sangrahashala donated 406 manuscripts to the library.
Professor Syed Anwar Hossain, who teaches history at DU, said the oldest manuscript preserved in the library was Sarada Tilak. It was written in 1439 during the Pal dynasty.
The professor said we could know a great deal more about our history if the documents were deciphered. All those texts that had been identified had yet to be posted on the DU website, he added.
In the past, the university had sent some of the rare manuscripts to reputed libraries across the world for research purposes. But that process has now come to a stop.
The authorities recently held a three-day exhibition of part of the collection and organised a seminar in March. But there was no talk on how to identify, decode or otherwise take further action on the valuable texts.
Professor Mofakkharul Islam of the History Department blamed a lack of will and commitment for the neglected state of these old manuscripts.