Context

The National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) is set to become autonomous with ₹500 crore funding, aiming to preserve India's vast manuscript heritage.

What is a Manuscript?

• A manuscript is a handwritten composition on paper, bark, cloth, metal, palm leaf, or any other material dating back at least seventy-five years that has significant scientific, historical, or aesthetic value.
• Lithographs and printed volumes are not manuscripts.
• Manuscripts are found in hundreds of different languages and scripts.
• Often, one language is written in a number of different scripts. For example, Sanskrit is written in Oriya script, Grantha script, Devanagari script, and many other scripts.
• Manuscripts are distinct from historical records such as epigraphs on rocks, firm ans, and revenue records, which provide direct information on events or processes in history.
• Manuscripts have knowledge content.

About National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM)

• It was established in February 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India.
• Mandate: Documenting, conserving and disseminating the knowledge preserved in the manuscripts.
• Motto: ‘Conserving the past for the future’
• A unique project in its programme and mandate, the NMM seeks to unearth and preserve the vast manuscript wealth of India.
• India possesses an estimate of ten million manuscripts, probably the largest collection in the world.
• These cover a variety of themes, textures, and aesthetics, scripts, languages, calligraphies, illuminations, and illustrations.
• While 75% of the existing manuscripts are in Sanskrit, 25% are in regional languages, according to the NMM.

Objectives

• The mission restores and conserves manuscripts that are old or damaged, assuring they can be used by future generations. By digitizing manuscripts, it makes it easier for people to access these texts online. This digital archive is known as Kritisampada, which serves as the National Database of Manuscripts.

• It also organizes workshops and training sessions to educate people about manuscript conservation techniques.

Achievements of National Mission for Manuscripts

• 52 lakh manuscripts have been prepared and roughly over 3 lakh titles have been digitized. However, only one-third of them have been uploaded.
• Over the past 21 years, NMM had undertaken preventive and curative conservation of 9 crore folios.
• The mission has published more than 100 books since its inception.
• The mission has established over 100 Manuscripts Resource Centres & Manuscripts Conservation Centres 

Sources: 

HINDU