Mention manuscripts to people and many will immediately think of movie scripts. A theology student may think of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a manuscript collector will recall the exorbitant price a copy of the Declaration of Independence of the USA fetched recently. A history buff will daydream about the incredible knowledge the ancient monks painstakingly wrote down on scrolls before the invention of the printing press. The list of examples is literally endless as the word manuscript mean so many different things to different people.

The fact is that manuscripts can be anything; you cannot define them by their contents alone. It may be the original of the latest novel, maps, writing with illustrations or scribbled mathematical equations and calculations. Today you will find manuscripts in codex format, electronically stored manuscripts in various forms, books scrolls and more. Some of the most beautiful and extraordinary manuscripts are those of the Gothic period. These not only contain information, but can be seen as works of art in their own right. Incredible effort went into creating these illustrated manuscripts.

Herculean task

India has undertaken a mammoth task with a 5-year plan to catalogue all possible manuscripts spanning their 5,000 year civilisation. This staggering task has a budget of INR.3.5 billion [$80m] and as can imagine there has been some criticism about spending so much money and manpower. The drive behind this initiative is first to preserve as many of the ancient manuscripts as possible. The second part is to bring the past into our present so as to make the information appropriate for the future.

Not only scholars are excited and interested in the results to be gained from this initiative in India. These manuscripts of which there are untold thousands, on copper plates, birch bark, handmade paper and palm leaves contain knowledge and information about diverse topics. Knowledge about history, medicine, astrology, religion, botany, aerodynamics and so much more is to be found in these ancient manuscripts.

Knowledge regained

Through the unravelling of ancient mysteries contained in these manuscripts, people will have access to the knowledge of their ancestors. They will have insight in how people lived their daily lives and how they worked. Information on the medicine available throughout the ages and the science that has been forgotten are to be found on these manuscripts. The medical information and knowledge alone is invaluable and has the potential of empowering India intellectually like never before.

A good example is the Vanaspati Kosh, from the 9^th century that has been unearthed in the city of Srinagar. This is a unique dictionary indexing medicinal herbs, detailed instructions on how to cultivate them and listing the medicines that can be produced from each plant. This is invaluable information for anyone in the medical and healing professions.

It is therefore understandable that teams of scholarly surveyors are combing India on foot with questionnaires in hand. They are knocking on doors of homes, visiting temples and asking questions in places people hardly ever visit. They have been busy with this task now for three years and an astounding goldmine of information has already been uncovered. Some of the information is so rare and important that it has already been declared a national heritage. The work is still in progress; this amazing uncovering of what is literally the memories of the world contained in millions of forgotten and neglected manuscripts.