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A story goes that once Picasso, the great artist, wanted a cupboard made. He had a particular design in mind. Picking up a piece of paper, he casually sketched a pencil design for the carpenter. When the cupboard was ready and Picasso asked about the charges, the carpenter took out the sketch from his pocket and said naively, "Just sign it sir, that’s all I want." Decades later, the carpenter realised the value of the original, autographed sketch that could fetch him a fortune. Old manuscripts, diaries, signatures and other hand-written documents are the most priceless treasures of any culture that stand on a par with antiques in their value. A manuscript, in black ink or in gold, written on bhoj patra or may be on a parchment, scribbled with a quill or a reed pen (kalam), is a collector’s delight. It is a culture’s valuable heritage to be guarded and preserved. And yet, unfortunately, while most of us prize an art piece or a sculpture, we tend to ignore the written document as insignificant. Just recently, three young men were caught in Mumbai trying to sell Emperor Aurangzeb’s copy of the Koran beautifully written in gold calligraphy. The timely detection saved a priceless treasure from vanishing. When man acquired language and the art of writing, anything and everything was good enough for him to write: bhoj patra, taad patra, parchments, rock surfaces and so on. Invention of paper and ink gave further impetus to his writing skills, and today with computer and Internet at his disposal, writing and printing have become an easy proposition. Despite this, the significance of old manuscripts, written assiduously by some lover of language and literature, cannot be undervalued. Value is not to be measured in monetary terms but in terms of cultural significance. The faded and mutilated copy of the American Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson in June 1776, is as prized as an original Leonardo Da Vinci. A manuscript of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas can be as priceless as any original art piece. To be candid, the manuscripts of our historical and religious documents are important in revealing the finer nuances of our culture and civilisation. During the Bhakti movement, the saint-poets usually sang their compositions impromptu and transmitted them orally as they moved from place to place. Their disciples wrote them down in the first instance and later undertook to make several copies in the spirit of guru seva. Kalyan Swami copied Swami Samarth Ramdas’s Manache Shlok and other compositions in beautiful handwriting. Also some kings or feudal lords who were lovers of literature often employed copiers. The main qualification required for the job was expertise in calligraphy. Records reveal that during the Peshwa regime, the rate paid for copying was about Rs 250 to 300 for one thousand pages. It was quite a good sum considering the times. In Peshwa Kaleen Maharashtra, mention has been made of the sale price of some of the copied scriptures. The Bhagavadgita could be bought for Rs 275, while the Mahabharata could cost anything between Rs 275 and Rs 300. The price was foreboding for the common man who depended on oral transmission by priests or those who sang bhajans. The original works and their copies were preserved in temples or in the personal libraries of the rich — zamindars, kings or feudal lords. During the British regime, public libraries and museums, and later national and state archives, started keeping the volumes. The manuscripts, be they on paper or parchment or on palm leaves, require special care for they are likely to fade or become brittle. It is a pleasure to come across an old manuscript. Some of them display the art of the copier — beautifully written in black ink with reed pen, the pages decorated with leafy designs along the borders, some relevant motifs drawn to illustrate a theme/incident are a treat to the eyes. Sometimes, the discovery of some original manuscripts throws light on interesting histories. A scroll of the Old Testament now kept in the University Library in Jerusalem was discovered by chance. A shepherd boy was grazing his cattle when one of his goats jumped on a ledge and disappeared. He called out and whistled but the goat was nowhere to be seen. The boy threw a stone at the ledge and felt as if it struck some crockery item. Curious, he climbed up only to find some huge pitchers in a cave stuffed with parchments. He recovered them, not knowing what they were. In the market a merchant quickly guessed their value, bought them from the boy at a throwaway price and later sold them off for a fortune. These are the oldest available scrolls of the Bible in Hebrew. The original manuscript of the Koran is in the British Museum. Some parts are complete while some are in fragments on Papyrus, dating back to the first century. These were exhibited in 1976 during World Islam Festival. The manuscript of the Guru Granth Sahib too has a long history. The first original book signed and sealed by Guru Arjan Dev was installed in Harmandar Sahib on August 30, 1604. It is said that Emperor Akbar was repeatedly getting complaints that making copies of the Granth Sahib was sacrilegious and should be stopped. While camping at Batala, once Akbar asked for a copy of the Granth Sahib. He was so moved by its contents that he made an offering of 51 gold coins as a token of respect to the holy book. He realised that it was much too sublime to be confined to narrow religious sentiments. He took to task those who had maliciously complained to him. The world of ancient manuscripts is a wonderful world of yore, of the history, culture and sociology of those times and of perennial philosophy. Duttopant, a sant-poet from Maharashtra, composed a philosophical treatise on the Vedanta in Marathi, entitled Pasodi. Literally, Pasodi is a shawl-like cloth worn in winter. Befittingly, Duttopant wrote his work on a cloth, which has turned yellow now and is almost threadbare. It has been preserved in its original form in the temple complex at Ambejogai in Beed district of Maharashtra. Not only the masterpieces but even the bahis (note books) maintained by village priests or family elders are attracting researchers in socio-cultural fields. The details and the data jotted down casually are decoded to ascertain the origin, movement and other historical facts about certain communities or tribes. Priceless information on some aspects of the folk practices in Himachal Pradesh is also found in old manuscripts preserved with some families in villages across the state. |
