National Mission for Manuscripts

National Mission for Manuscripts
Formation	7 February 2003
Headquarters	11, Mansingh Road, New Delhi - 110001
Parent organisation	Ministry of Culture, Government of India
Website	Official Website

The National Mission for Manuscripts (NAMAMI) is an autonomous organisation under Ministry of Culture, Government of India, established to survey, locate and conserve Indian manuscripts, with an aim to create national resource base for manuscripts, for enhancing their access, awareness and use for educational purposes.^[2] The Mission was initiated in February 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts^[3] is the nodal agency for the execution of this project. It creates bibliographic databases of Indian manuscripts and is involved in the conservation and preservation of the manuscripts.^[4]

Overview

The organisation works in the field of restoration and conservation Indian manuscripts, and their digitisation, to promote access and scholarship through research and publication. It has also established a national network of institutions and manuscript repositories, including Manuscript Resource Centres (MRC-s), Manuscript Conservation Centres (MCC-s), Manuscript Partner Centres (MPC-s) and Manuscript Conservation Partner Centres (MCPC-s), spread across the nation.^[5] It has also established Kritisampada, the National Database of Manuscripts, a digital archive at its website.

The Mission also got a Rigveda manuscripts preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, where it runs a 'Manuscripts Resource and Conservation Centre', included in UNESCO’S, Memory of the World Register in 2007.^[5]^[6] In October 2010, the Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Library (Central Library), BHU in association with the Mission, held a national workshop on manuscript conservation at the library.^[7]^[8]

Manuscript Conservation Centres

The Mission runs a network of 32 conservation units across the India, known as Manuscript Conservation Centres (MCCs), divided according to geographical zones.^[5]^[9]

North

Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi
Department of Language and Culture, Shimla
The Himalayan Society for Heritage and Art Conservation, Nainital
Vrindavan Research Institute, Vrindavan
Rampur Raza Library, Rampur
Nagarjuna Buddhist Foundation, Gorakhpur
Indian Conservation Institute, Lucknow
Visweshvarananda Biswabandhu Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies, Hoshiarpur
Central Library, Banaras Hindu University, Banaras