For internally displaced Pandits, parting with their sacred books is almost like giving away a treasure
Kashmir’s tribute enriches country’s manuscript coffers
Nearly three decades ago, when the militant struggle in Kashmir made fleeing an honourable option, Dr B N Kalla came to live in Delhi with his family and many prized manuscripts that had been passed down by his father, a Sanskrit scholar.
Today, Dr Kalla is among an army of Kashmiri pandits, whose manuscripts — pages of history that have captured the social and religious mores of a race — are the biggest contributors to the National Mission for Manuscripts. Not any other ethnic community, a survey held by by the Mission declared recently.
Its Assistant Director Dilip Kumar Rana said some Kashmiri families have had these manuscripts for centuries. “They are also worshipped,” he added.
Manuscripts from Kashmir were written in the Sharda script, seen as a predecessor to Gurmukhi, the script of Punjab. It is older than Devnagari and is the predominant source of the region’s history for researchers. Some in Kalla’s collection — among the biggest in the city — are from the 12th Century which talk about religious pilgrimages of those days.
Kalla has not counted the pages with him but they fill up a big almirah. Recently, in order to facilitate research, he donated nearly eight from his personal collection to the Mission.
Sarbanand Kole, who passed away last year, has also left behind a wealth of the past with his family in Safdarjung Enclave.
There are many more, who might not have a substantial collection like Kalla and Kole, but the few threads they cherish bind them strongly to their roots. Aswaita Vadini Kaul works at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts and has at least four miniature paintings of gods and goddesses that are almost 200 years old. The paintings have been with her family for as long as she can remember and are now worshipped.
S S Toshkhani, of Vasant Kunj, came to Delhi in 1984 and brought along with him two or three manuscripts. He worships them too.
But it has been an uphill struggle to preserve the pages of time. Several have been lost in transition, to accidents and even to termites. B N Kalla’s son Kiran said: “We put up in rented accommodations in the early years. We gave away several trunks full of manuscripts to relatives for lack of space. Many have been lost. Some were ruined by termites, and some we burnt to save other manuscripts from getting spoilt.”
(kashmirlive.com)