SRINAGAR: The Kashmir University (KU) is hosting a three week workshop on ‘Manuscriptology and Palaeography’ from Friday with an aim to broaden among scholars and academics the understanding of historic manuscripts.
Manuscriptology is the science of collecting, classifying, preserving manuscripts while Palaeography is the science of deciphering ancient writings as evident in documents and inscriptions.
The main aim of the workshop is to train the teachers and scholars of the interdisciplinary areas to easily read and understand the different scripts of these manuscripts which have been preserved in different libraries and personal domains of the people of Kashmir, KU spokesman Showkat Shafi told UNI.
Department of Persian Studies is hosting the event in collaboration with National Mission for Manuscripts, Ministry of Culture Government of India.
Programme Coordinator Dr Jhangir Iqbal said there was a dire need to teach people particularly those who are relevant to the field about the various standardised methods for the preservation of different manuscripts.
“India is a veritable storehouse of manuscripts but there is absence of any standardised system to preserve these manuscripts,” he said.
India has around 5,000,000 manuscripts, according to a 2002 report of the Department of Culture.
The workshop will be attended by different teachers and Research scholars of Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Islamic studies, Center for Center Asian Studies (CCAS), Kashmir studies, Iqbaliyat, Marqaz-i-Noor and History department of the KU.
