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.