Mussoorie historian threatens to burn rare Sanskrit manuscripts

MUSSOORIE: A historian, Gopal Bharadwaj, in Mussoorie is threatening to burn two rare Sanskrit manuscripts - a Panchang (Hindu calendar) and a Bhagwat Puran (religious text) - after his repeated pleas to authorities to help preserve them fell on deaf ears.
The Panchang and the Bhagwat Puran date back to 1590 and 1806 respectively. Bharadwaj, after years of pleading to authorities preserve them, is now threatening to either burn them or give them to another state.
“I am sick of empty promises. If nobody is interested in these rare documents, I might as well burn them,” says a disappointed Bharadwaj.
Bharadwaj was handed over the manuscripts by his father R G R Bhardwaj, an astrologer. “My father had conducted a puja for the Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir who then gifted him the 2,500-pages-long Bhagwat Puran somewhere between 1940-45. The Panchang written in 1590-95 is ancestral heritage,” Bharadwaj said.
In March 2010, Bharadwaj approached the Archeological Survey of India’s lab in Dehradun for scientific conservation of the valuable manuscripts.
In the report on the two manuscripts, the ASI lab stated that it is “necessary to restore and preserve this national cultural heritage as early as possible,” and mentioned that Bharadwaj needed to bear an expenditure of Rs 92,327 towards the costs of consolidation of ink, fumigation, chemical cleaning, de-acidification, mending and reintegration, lining and preservation etc.
TOI had in September 2014 reported on the neglected manuscripts, which prompted the then Uttarakhand governor Aziz Qureshi to call for scientific preservation of the these “documents of high importance”.
A determined Bharadwaj also approached governor K K Paul in March 2015 and was promised help.
“Just six weeks ago ASI told me that I am supposed to chase the case on my own. I have no patience or resources anymore,” said Bharadwaj.
Bharadwaj has been crying hoarse about the need for a museum in Mussoorie since he has some rare collectables such as a British wall carpet, an 1822 scrap book, antiquated prints of the hill station and Jim Corbett’s stove.