Tezpur University initiative: Rare historic documents of Assam digitized

Under the leadership of Prof Ranjit Kumar Dev Goswami, Srimanta Sankardeva Chair, the Center for Assamese Studies, Tezpur University on Tuesday released rare digitized historic documents of Assam.

The digitized historic documents were released by the Vice Chancellor of Tezpur University, Prof MM Sarma, during a programme held at the Council Hall of the University.

Those documents now can be accessed through the University’s website.

A massive project of digitizing about four thousand old Assamese manuscripts and printed books was taken by the Center for Assamese Studies of the University under the leadership of Prof Dev Goswami, Dr Juri Dutta and research associate  Sanjib Deka.

The rare and old Assamese books and manuscripts which have been digitized by the Centre include the first edition of the ‘Kirtana’ and the ‘Namaghosa’  published by Haribilas Agarwala in 1876, rare sanchi-paat manuscripts of ‘Dasam Skandha Bhagavata’ (Barpeta Satra), Ananta Kandali’s ‘Ramayana’ (Barpeta Satra), Namaghosa (Barhampur Binapani Library, Jamuguri), the first edition of Hemchandra Barua’s ‘Hema Kosha’ (1900) and the personal diaries of Padmanath Gohain Baruah (1871-1946), KK Handiqui (1898-1982).

Many of the hand-written manuscripts of Jyotiprasad Agarwala (1903-1951), Chandrabala Barua (1907-1983), Maheswar Neog (1915-1995), Praphulladatta Goswami (1919-1994) and others have also been digitized.

Besides, the Centre also digitized the important official letters and documents relating to the establishment of Gauhati University in 1948.

Several books from local libraries, like the Tezpur Government MV School Library, Barhampur Binapani Library, Jamugurihaat and Media Archives, Guwahati, particularly its Benudhar Sarma collection have also been digitized.

While speaking on the occasion, Prof Dev Goswami described many anecdotes from the collections and said that the digitalization would help other researchers and academicians immensely.

Prof Deva Goswami also called the collections as ‘gold dust’ and said that after the digitalization even those documents, which were in poor conditions, now can be read.