Summer poses threat to rare manuscripts at Raza Library

Rampur: With no air conditioners, the approaching summer may spell doom for the thousands of rare and

antique

books of the famous

Raza

Library here. The lab technicians have claimed that the precious books and

manuscripts

of the

library

may get damaged if the temperature soars in the coming months. "The library had proposed a new building, with AC facilities, to preserve the books and Rs 20 crore was also sanctioned by the government," said Himanshu Singh, spokesman of Raza Library. But, governor Aziz Qureshi stopped it, he said. The state governor is also the chairman of Raza library board. The library staff preserves the manuscripts manually and no high -tech support has been provided by the government. Speaking with TOI, Singh said, “Temperature between 18 and 24 degree Celsius is considered ideal for preservation of these documents and objects." The library is a treasure trove of rare documents and books. “Rare documents in different Indian languages written on palm leaves, more than 60 thousand published books in Indian and foreign languages. There is also a Qur'an hand written by Hadhrat Ali on deer skin,” the spokesman said. According to Singh, the library has also about 17 thousand rare documents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Urdu, Pushto, Hindi and Turkish etc as well as rare specimens of arts and paintings. “Since the days of Nawabs, not much attention was paid nor was it needed in preserving these documents. But, because of changing weather conditions during the past few years temperatures in summers and winters are varying greatly because of which more care and suitable temperature is needed,” said, Naved Qaisar, research scholar at the library. Former director of Raza Library, Muhammad Azizuddin Husain, had prepared a proposal for setting up a separate building for preserving the documents. Archaeological Survey of India's (ASI) permission was also obtained. The ASI has also suggested that the height of this new building should be one metre less than the old building, the spokesman said.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.