Pedagogy and scribal culture in pre-colonial Bengal: Digitization of 2500 manuscripts from Nabadwip Sadharan Granthagar

Tabbed

Description & Rationale

Nabadwip, a small town in the Nadia district of West Bengal (India), is said to have been the capital of the Sena kingdom of Bengal until the 13th century and was well into the 20th a preeminent center of Sanskrit learning. Traditionally held to be the birthplace of Chaitanya (circa 1486-1534), the founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava movement, Nabadwip remains a very important pilgrimage center for Hindus across the world. Nabadwip’s reputation as a center of Sanskrit learning however was not dependent solely on the Gaudiya Vaishnava networks and in fact predated the birth of Chaitanya. As demonstrated by historians such as Dineshchandra Bhattacharyya, Jonardon Ganeri, Joel Bordeaux, and Samuel Wright, the scholarly networks centered in Nabadwip and adjoining regions excelled in several disciplines of Sanskrit learning including Vyakarana (grammar), Alankara (poetics), Smriti (law), and Nyaya (logic).

In the early modern period, scholars based in the town who were almost without exception Brahmin men experienced unprecedented success as Nabadwip emerged as the main center of Navya-nyaya or “new reason” school of Sanskrit thought. The emergence of Navya-nyaya scholarship in the Nabadwip region impacted not just the discipline of logic but changed for good the methodologies of several other disciplines as well. Patronized by the landholding and mercantile elites, the Sanskrit educational institutions or chatushpathis in the Nabadwip region attracted students from all over South Asia and even Tibet. Nabadwip was also home to Vaishnava theologians and Tantric scholars. Given Nabadwip’s preeminence as both a center of learning and Vaishnava devotionalism, the town was also a hub of manuscript production and a home to scribal communities.

As several surveys since the 19th century have evinced, Nabadwip and its adjoining regions were exceptionally rich in Sanskrit manuscripts, most of which were in custody of Brahmin scholarly lineages that presided over the educational institutions on a hereditary basis. As Sanskrit learning declined, many of these families donated their manuscript collections to public libraries in the region. Nabadwip Sadharan Granthagar, a public library in Nabadwip town owned by the Government of West Bengal, is one such repository and has in its collection more than 2500 manuscripts. Upon request, the Government of West Bengal’s library administration in the Nadia district has granted us permission to digitize for open access the entire collection of manuscripts in the custody of Nabadwip Sadharan Granthagar. We have closely examined the collection. Many manuscripts are severely damaged and they need to be urgently digitized. The library does not have the requisite infrastructure or financial resources to have the manuscripts restored and store them in climate-controlled facilities. The manuscripts, which are on various media such as hand-made paper, Palmyra-palm leaves, and Birch tree barks, are increasingly becoming fragile and need to be digitized without any further delay. The library authorities fear that the manuscripts may be even stolen or forcibly taken away.

Reasons for consideration:

The hand-list at Nabadwip Sadharan Granthagar has entries for around 894 manuscripts. However, on closer examination, we found that there are over 2500 manuscripts. The folios were all wrapped up in bundles. Once the folios were disaggregated and serially rearranged, it became quite clear that the actual number of manuscripts in custody of the library far exceeded the count provided in the hand-list.

Almost without exception, all the manuscripts are brittle, and since none of them are stored in climate-controlled facilities, their condition is worsening with passage of time. A lot of the manuscripts show stains and smudges indicative of extensive water-damage. Since the building is damp and poorly ventilated, some of the other manuscripts are spoiled by dirt and mould. Unless digitally preserved immediately, these manuscripts will be lost forever. The library, which is over a century old, is decrepit and there is hardly any chance that it will be able to raise money to restore the manuscripts. It currently has only one member of staff on its payroll and that person alone is entrusted with all responsibilities of running the institution on a quotidian basis.

Since Sanskrit learning in Nabadwip is all but extinct, the library has hardly any readers who are equipped with skills to read the manuscripts. Consequently, hardly anybody in that small town has any interest in preserving or restoring the manuscripts. It is no exaggeration that this chronic disinterest in Sanskrit manuscripts is the result of some long-term structural reasons, and it is next to impossible to reverse this unfortunate trend in the foreseeable future. Thus, the only way to bring scholarly attention to these 2500 manuscripts is to digitize them and to upload the images on various open access platforms.

These manuscripts are among the last few material traces of the scribal communities and the vibrant manuscript culture that had thrived in early-modern Nabadwip. They are vestiges that evidence the academic excellence that the institutions of Nabadwip had attained almost four hundred years ago. Taken together, the manuscripts enable us to reconstruct the whole spectrum of scholarly and religious engagements that shaped academic and devotional pursuits in the region. Since a lot of the manuscripts are manuals for Brahmanical, Gaudiya Vaishnava, and Tantric ritual practices they should be also useful to understand the anxieties and aspirations that characterized quotidian lives in the region during the pre-colonial period.

Author(s):

Various Authors

Source Format:

Other Paper

Target Format:

Digital

Program:

SAMP

Resource Types:

Other

Regions:

South Asia

Countries of Origin:

Bangladesh

India

Proposal Contributors:

This proposal is being submitted on behalf of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, a SAMP member institution. The following members of the Archive, the Administration, and the Faculty of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta were actively involved in the preparation of this proposal: Abhijit Bhattacharya, Rajarshi Ghose, Tapan Paul, Gopal Adak, and Sourav Mandal.

The CSSSC proposes to collaborate with the Nabadwip Sadharan Granthagar for the proposed digitization of manuscripts held in the collection of the library.

Posted:

Jun 24, 2022 1:27pm

Updated:

Aug 11, 2023 5:36pm

Activity

Status	Current	Description
Flagged	no	The proposal is flagged for further research.
Vetted	no	The proposal has been examined and vetted.
Ballotted	no	The proposal is currently on a committee ballot.
Approved	yes	The proposal has been selected for reformatting. Reformatting efforts are pending.
Reformatted	no	The proposal has been reformatted and access information is now posted.
Inactive / Declined	no	No longer under consideration for reformatting.