Over 27,000 manuscripts digitised in Haryana
A total of 27,587 manuscripts have been uploaded in Haryana under the Gyan Bharatam Mission, marking a major step towards preserving the State’s rich documentary and intellectual heritage, officials said.
The initiative is expected to create a comprehensive digital repository that will significantly contribute towards preserving India’s knowledge systems and making them accessible to scholars, researchers and future generations worldwide.
Among the districts, Kurukshetra emerged as the top-performing district with 15,818 manuscripts uploaded on the Gyan Bharatam portal so far.
Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi here on Monday reviewed the progress of the National Manuscript Survey and directed departments to further accelerate outreach and documentation efforts across the State.
During the review meeting, the chief secretary assessed the ongoing implementation of the survey across districts and emphasised the need for coordinated efforts among Government departments, educational institutions and district administrations to ensure comprehensive documentation of valuable manuscripts available across Haryana.
Rastogi stressed that the preservation of manuscripts is not merely an archival exercise but an important initiative aimed at safeguarding centuries-old knowledge, traditions and cultural values for future generations.
He underlined that such efforts would help preserve India’s rich intellectual heritage and strengthen its accessibility for researchers and scholars.
The Gyan Bharatam Mission, a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, aims to survey, document, conserve, digitise and disseminate India’s manuscript heritage through collaboration with academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collectors.
In addition, the National Manuscript Survey was launched on March 16, 2026, for identifying, documenting and creating a comprehensive national database of manuscripts available with institutions, private individuals, scholars, mutts, temples, libraries and other repositories.
The review highlighted that the Department of Archives, Haryana, has been designated as the State Nodal Department for implementation of the National Manuscript Survey, while a State-Level Standing Committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary has been constituted for effective monitoring and execution of the initiative.
District-level committees and nodal officers have also been appointed across the State to facilitate the smooth implementation of the survey process.
Commissioner and Secretary, Archives Department, Saket Kumar, informed the meeting that continuous monitoring and district-level coordination are being undertaken to ensure the timely progress of the survey. The chief secretary commended the Kurukshetra district administration for its exemplary performance and urged other districts to intensify their efforts to accelerate the survey and documentation process across the State.
He also reviewed awareness initiatives undertaken by the Department of Archives, including print and social media campaigns aimed at encouraging public participation in identifying and documenting manuscript collections across Haryana.
