RTMNU’s Knowledge Resource Centre to digitise over 14,000 Sanskrit manuscripts

 

 

 

Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU) is taking up several constructive projects as a part of its centenary celebrations. Now, its Knowledge Resource Centre (The library) has come up with the idea of digitising the Sanskrit manuscripts. RTMNU will put 14,313 manuscripts on digital platform which will be on its official website. It is a huge volume of Sanskrit manuscripts being digitised in any university in the country. “These manuscripts are of 16th century which have been preserved by RTMNU centre since long. Preserving it for future is a tedious job. I felt, if those get damaged with the passage of time, then we will lose this rare treasure.

 

So, I thought it should be digitised. I shared the idea with Vice-Chancellor Dr Subhash Chaudhari, who immediately agreed and offered all support. With the help of Kavikulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University (KKSU) we have started the process,” said Dr Vijay Khandal, Director of Knowledge Resource Centre of RTMNU. The manuscripts will be available on website and anybody can access them, but the task will be completed in a year. For past several years, no stock verification was done. Dr Khandal brought the fact to the notice of Vice Chancellor who gave him permission to start with counting the books, in September 2021. A sub-committee under the leadership of Dr D R Deshpande, ex-Principal and ex-Librarian from Wardha has been constituted. Dr Suresh Randhai, Dr Puja Dadhe, Deputy Librarian Dr Manjusha Joshi are its members. he committee endeavored and followed step-wise procedure of verification of stock. It submitted the report to Dr Khandal on August 25, 2022, Dr Khandal verified everything a report of total 4,25,536 books was submitted to Dr Chaudhari. The 40 members worked hard to check every minute detail. According to Dr Khandal, the stock verification was not done even at the universities of Pune, Mumbai also which actually a very important part of library.

 

“We have books of even 17th century, the editions of some books are not available anywhere but here they are preserved. We have created the catalogues of all books on digital platform due to which we can check the books whether they are issued, what is their condition, their all details. I am planning to digitise those books to make them available to all. We have to buy a machine for scanning books. It is a long process but if it is done then like manuscripts, we can preserve our books forever,” said Dr Khandal.

 

 

Accession number of books from the rack recorded in the verification sheet

 

Entered in excel sheet

 

Accession register checked to find out the already written off, transferred books. 

 

Gap Number identified n Bibliographical details (Acc. No, Class number, title, author and price) recorded in sheet

 

Availability on the rack cross checked