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VRINDABAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE
No other country faces a greater problem in preserving its
cultural heritage than India, and of all areas in India, this is
especially true of the Braj area which is, on the one hand, so
rich in unique and invaluable manuscripts and other cultural
objects and, on the other hand, so poor in means that every day
hundreds of manuscripts are sold as waste paper for wrapping
goods and food, or are burnt for preparing tea and meals. It
would be impossible to estimate how many thousands of manuscripts
have been disposed of over the last few decades in the traditional
way of consignment to the holy rivers, or by burial. This is not
only a loss to India, but also to Orientalist scholars from
all over the world.
The Vrindaban Research Institute in Vrindaban (U.P.) is a
recently established museum-cum-research centre, which is
struggling hard to save manuscript material in the Braj area.
Since its foundation in November, 1968, the Institute has a
acquired (largely by donation) over 10,000 manuscripts in
Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati, Urdu and Panjabi,
and several hundred documents, letters, coins, stamps, miniatures
and other antiquities.
The primary aim of the Vrindaban Research Institute is to
provide facilities for the study and publication of such treasures,
and for the efficient conservation of vast quantities of further
material which lies unknown and neglected, a prey to vermin and
the humid climate.
These photographs illustrate some of the material already
preserved by the Vrindaban Research Institute. |
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