UP: Professor, 80, pioneering preservation of over 5,000 ancient manuscripts

Prof Karunesh Shukla said that he started the collection and conservation of manuscripts with the establishment of his institution in 1987 after he contacted some of HIS friends in Mithila and Jammu who were involved in such work.

Gorakhpur: An 80-yr-old professor is pioneering the preservation of over 5,000 precious ancient manuscripts of several languages at the 'Nagarjuna Buddhist Pratishthan' museum at Adhiyaribagh in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur. More than 5,000 manuscripts are on display at the museum set up in the 80s by Professor Karunesh Shukla, former chairman of the Sanskrit department at Gorakhpur University.

The manuscripts of Nagari, Proto Nagari, Bangla, Proto Bengali, Maithili, and Awadhi --many of them around 1,200 years old-- have been collected after years of hard work. Acharya Asanga's 'Shravak Bhami' and Kambalpad's 'Heruk Sadhana Register' are also among the manuscripts. The two manuscripts belong to the 7th and 8th centuries.

Even at the age of 80, Prof Karunesh Shukla, along with his colleague Dr Ramchandra Mishra, is involved in the collection and preservation of the manuscripts. The museum has become a research center for students and researchers interested in the study of scripts and literature. Prof Shukla said that he started the collection and conservation of manuscripts with the establishment of his institution in 1987.

For this, he contacted some of his friends living in Mithila and Jammu who were involved in the work of the collection of manuscripts. With their help, in 5 years, the establishment became a museum of about 5,000 manuscripts. At present, historical manuscripts of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Gita, Puranas, Vedas, Ayurveda, grammar, tantra, astrology are preserved in the museum.

Dalai Lama is the principal patron of this Buddhist museum. Prof Shukla said that national and international seminars have been organized from time to time by the museum. Dalai Lama came to Gorakhpur in 1981 and 1998 to attend two such seminars. The institution has been supported by the National Mission for Manuscripts since 2005.