Guru Granth Sahib: 550 handwritten manuscripts of holy scripture digitised

However, the centre has faced challenges while undertaking the exercise. (Image: IE)

Guru Granth Sahib: The Guru Nanak Dev University has achieved a major feat and digitised a whopping 550 handwritten manuscripts of the holy scripture Guru Granth Sahib. The task has been undertaken by the university’s Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib (CSSGGS), and among the 550 manuscripts are 170 dated saroops. The exercise has been ongoing for the past seven years, and is still going on, according to a report in IE. For this, the centre accessed the manuscripts from individuals as well as Sikh institutions across Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand as well as Nepal.

A webinar has also been scheduled by the centre in the first week of September to commemorate the 417th installation day of the Guru Granth Sahib. During this, there would be a showcase that would also include the highlight the work that has been carried out to preserve these manuscripts, the report cited CSSGGS direct Dr Amarjit Singh as saying.

However, apart from the 550 handwritten manuscripts of the holy scripture, the centre has also undertaken the digitisation of 70 copies of handwritten Dasam Granth, and an additional 500 pothis that contain Sikh religious text. As many as 170 dated manuscripts that the centre has digitised originated between 1707 AD and 1800 AD.

Now, the project has entered the third phase, and the centre is continuing to search for more handwritten copies of the Guru Granth Sahib that it would be able to digitise.

However, the centre has faced challenges while undertaking the exercise. Dr Singh was cited by the report as saying that many individuals had not been ready to give them access to the manuscripts to undertake the exercise, as they had been worried that if the manuscripts became public, they might be taken away from them.