New Delhi | July 8, 2025 — In what is being hailed as the most expansive civilisational archiving initiative in India’s history, the Narendra Modi-led government is set to digitise thousands of ancient manuscripts over the next three years. The initiative, spearheaded by the National Archives of India (NAI), has already received an allocation of ₹50 crore for its first phase.
According to the official tender document reviewed by News18, many of these manuscripts—some inscribed on palm leaves, birch bark, parchment, cloth, or handmade paper—are in a “fragile, rare, deteriorating, brittle” state and require meticulous handling. The collection spans an extraordinary linguistic and cultural spectrum, including texts in Sanskrit, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam, Arabic, and Persian.
This large-scale archival effort is a formalisation of groundwork laid over the past several years by the Ministry of Culture through multiple digital platforms, such as Indian Culture, Abhilekh Patal, and the National Mission for Manuscripts. Teams across the country, particularly in Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Kashi, have already worked closely with temple authorities, private collectors, and traditional scholars to locate and catalogue invaluable regional manuscripts, many of which have remained hidden in personal libraries and oral traditions.
Stringent Conservation Protocols
The digitisation process will follow internationally recognised conservation standards and will be executed by professionals trained in archival handling and preservation. Key procedures outlined in the tender include unbinding, cleaning, flattening, high-resolution scanning, metadata creation, quality control, and optical character recognition (OCR) for applicable scripts—all to be carried out using non-invasive technologies that avoid heat or harsh lighting, which could further damage the already delicate materials.
“The condition of many manuscripts is so precarious that even minimal exposure can lead to irreversible damage,” the document states, emphasising the need for a careful and technologically sophisticated approach to preservation.
Integrating with National Digital Repositories
Once digitised, the manuscripts will be integrated into several national digital platforms, including the National Manuscripts Repository (NAMAMI), the National Virtual Library of India (NVLI), the Digital Library of India, the multilingual Bharatavani portal, and the government’s flagship cultural platform Indianculture.gov.in. These repositories will ensure that the general public, researchers, and future generations can access these cultural treasures in digital format.
A Cultural Renaissance
Experts involved in the project describe it not merely as a preservation mission, but as a cultural renaissance—a reclamation of India’s ancient intellectual heritage. “This is about safeguarding knowledge systems that have survived millennia, and ensuring they remain accessible and relevant in the digital age,” one senior archivist told News18.
As India positions itself as a global leader in heritage technology and knowledge digitisation, this project stands as a testament to the country’s renewed commitment to protecting and promoting its vast and diverse civilisational legacy.
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