Literary manuscripts must be well preserved for being studied by future generations, says President
Shri Mukherjee spoke about the rich history and the important role played by this institution to promote literature and preserve numerous valuable literary manuscripts like ‘ShriKrishnaKirtan’, a medieval era Bengali verse, since its inception on July 23, 1893.
Mukherjee stated that he was a member of the Board of Trustee of this august institution which had luminaries like Ramesh Chandra Dutta, Rabindranath Tagore and Ramendrasundar Trivedi at its helm.
Mukherjee said, he had to resign from the Trustee Board prior to assuming charge as the President of the country.
Speaking on the occasion, the President revealed that the 13000 manuscripts housed in the institute’s library are rare treasures which must be preserved at any cost and for that, all necessary arrangements must be made. Bangiya Sahitya Parishad is associated with the history of Bengali literature and the resources of such an old institution are high value research materials.
Quoting Tagore, Mukherjee regretfully stated that in our country we do not pay much attention towards preservation of our historical resources because of which many such institutions of the country have gone into oblivion.
Speaking of Shri KrishnaKirtan, he said, after Ramananda Chattopadhyay published it for the first time in Prabashi magazine, the world came to know about Bengali intellect and it also upheld the values of universal humanism in simple words.
Mukherjee said, literature is not only a creative work, but also an ample reflection of society and people at large. Hence, world literature that is a reflection of a group of people’s geography, history, society, daily life must be preserved for being handed over and studied by future generations.
The President also informed that Bangiya Sahitya Parishad has received a corpus fund of Rs 10 crores from Union Ministry of Culture. This and other similar grants can be well utilised towards preservation of the priceless manuscripts in possession of this institution.
On the occasion, the Governor of West Bengal released a commemorative volume of the institution and handed over the first copy to the President.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.