Bhubaneswar: Preservation of a nation’s identity depends not only on its territory, political history or economic progress, but also on its knowledge systems, collective memory and cultural heritage, noted manuscriptologist Prafulla Kumar Mishra said while inaugurating a workshop on manuscriptology in Bhubaneswar Tuesday.
Mishra, a former director of the National Mission for Manuscripts, said manuscripts and ancient texts are among the most authentic records of a civilisation’s heritage and emphasised that their preservation, study and research are a shared responsibility.
The ten-day workshop is being organised by Odisha Virtual Academy to promote identifi cation, survey, preservation, digitisation, descriptive cataloguing, editing, publication and research of manuscript resources, said academy secretary Pradeep Kumar Rout, who presided over the inaugural session.
Delivering the keynote address, manuscript scholar Harekrushna Mishra said India’s knowledge traditions can be preserved and advanced through the proper reading and interpretation of manuscripts. “The workshop aims not only to provide information about manuscripts but also to strengthen manuscript studies as a structured academic discipline,” he said.
Rajadhani College department of Sanskrit head and course director of the workshop Bibhuti Bhushan Mahapatra, said the training programme covers manuscriptology, paleography, codicology, textual decipherment, textual criticism, critical editing, preparation of descriptive catalogues, digital preservation and research methodology.