28.06.2015
Kolkata
India's pride resides in its heritage which is its rich history, culture and art & craft including Manuscripts. These are the original texts or scripts which are manually written and are basis of learning of science, philosophy, medicine and technology. These manuscripts are diminishing at an accelerated pace which makes its conservation and restoration an urgent priority. Jain Vishva Bharati University, Ladnun has set up Bhagawan Mahaveer International Center to aid the progress in the recovery of the Indian literary heritage.
As a stepping stone a 10 day workshop on Manuscriptology is being held in Kolkata from 27th july'15 for the Jain Scholar students by ABTMM under the guidance of Samani Chaitanya Prajna Ji (Executive Director BMIRC, Ladnun) and Dr. Manju Nahata (Coordinator, Jain Scholar Programme). Dr. Uttam Singh who is an expert in Manuscript conservation has flown in from Koba to conduct the workshop. The students here will be taught to identify and decipher various scripts, restoration, conservation, critical edition and important terminology of Manuscripts.
On day 1 the students were introduced to the importance and vast scope in the field of Manuscripts whereas day 2 saw them gleefully translating terms from Devanagari script to Brahmi script. The entire class was more than delighted to rediscover their own secret language. The idea is to encourage more and more students to pursue research in this field.