Providing researchers and students with access to rare manuscripts while respecting the rights of document managers

Medieval manuscripts offer an unusually detailed window into the workings of the state, from tracking cavalry losses in battle to identifying horse owners and dealing with officials charging pilgrims to bathe in the Ganges. How were cavalry losses in battle arrived at and how did the medieval state determine who these horses belonged to? Or for that matter, how did rulers in medieval India learn that officials were charging pilgrims money to bathe in the Ganges? And what was the writing on the palm leaves that one finds scattered around private collections and government institutions?

Access to the answers to these and a host of other administrative questions will be made easier as Telangana works closely with the Government of India to identify, preserve and digitize thousands of manuscripts and make them available to history buffs and researchers.

“The Telangana State Archives and Research Center signed an MoU with the Culture Ministry’s Gyan Bharatam Mission last November,” said State Archives Director Zareena Parveen. “We research, catalogue, preserve and digitize manuscripts held by government entities as well as manuscripts held by private citizens who are willing to allow us to digitize them. Our Special Secretary (Higher Education) Venkatesh Dhotre is the nodal officer. The aim is to have an online digital repository of manuscripts to better understand the causes of research and India’s cultural heritage.”

Till September 9, the Gyan Bharatam Mission team working at the State Archives had scanned as many as 6665 manuscripts. In other words, over 1.61 million pages have been digitized so far. To put the scale of the effort into perspective, up to 1,300 pages are scanned each day.

A member of the Gyan Bharatam Mission team from the Telangana State Archives and Research Institute scans the folios. Metadata is then generated, after which the manuscripts are stored in the document corpus. | Video Credit: Syed Mohammed

“There has always been an interest in the history and culture of India, especially among foreign scholars. Often their research topics are land, income and agriculture. For example, we are digitizing medieval documents that show when the mansabdari system became hereditary and how mansabdari were penalized or rewarded. There are documents that deal with details about horses, their pedigree or otherwise – whether they had large Arab eyes. There are also details of how horses were labeled,” explained Ms. Parveen.

Another aspect of the mission is to take the trustees of private collections into confidence. These include private libraries, collectors, religious institutions such as dargahs and temples, and organizations working to promote languages.

As part of the exercise, the State Archives has so far identified 2,23,751 manuscripts in 37 institutions in Hyderabad, out of a total of 107 institutions approached in Hyderabad and districts like Nalgonda, Warangal, Mulugu and Medchal.

To strengthen the initiative, the state government is setting up district coordination committees, conducting field inspections and publicizing the initiative.

However, this process is not without problems. For example, obtaining the confidentiality of the owners of private manuscript collections was a problem.

“Of course this is a problem. But there is a plan for it. The government has incentivized private collectors. So once a manuscript is downloaded, the owner of the manuscript gets a large percentage of the payment the user pays to download the copy,” Ms Parveen explained.

The Mission established four categories of access to manuscripts. The first means free access. The second is visible to scholars and others who are registered; downloads will be allowed after they are approved by the administrator. The third is the paid category in which the revenue sharing is 10:90. The last category includes rare manuscripts that require the approval of the ministry.

On the anvil, several departments and educational institutions are involved in the exercise. The District Collectors are to convene coordination meetings with Endowments Department, Telangana State Waqf Board, Education Department, Minority Welfare Department and Telangana Heritage Department. University directors, college directors and librarians will be asked to share information about manuscript holdings.

District-level workshops, awareness camps and media campaigns are likely to be organized to highlight the cultural value of the manuscripts, the security that digitization offers and, importantly, that ownership remains with the custodian.

Published – 11 Sep 2026 19:24 IST