Guwahati, July 23: In a bid to glorify the classical status accorded to the Assamese language, the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra Society in New Delhi handed over a collection of five ancient sanchipat manuscripts to the Rashtrapati Bhavan library for preservation and display.
Secretary of Kalakshetra, Sudarshan Thakur officially handed over the sanchipat manuscripts to the secretary of Rashtrapati Bhavan, Dipti Umashankar, at a solemn ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday.
Senior officials from Assam Bhavan, New Delhi and representatives from the Assam government and central government were present at the ceremony.
The sanchipat manuscripts include the ‘Kirtan Ghoxa’, composed by Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev; ‘Adi Dasham’, Srimanta Sankardev’s poetic translation based on the tenth skandha of the Bhagavata Purana; ‘Nam Ghoxa’, composed by Mahapurush Shri Shri Madhavdev and ‘Bhakti Ratnavali’, a Sanskrit work by the Vishnupuri monks, translated into Assamese by Mahapurush Shri Shri Madhavdev.
Moreover, a sanchipat manuscript of ‘Geet Govinda’, originally composed in Sanskrit by Jayadeva and translated into Assamese by poet Kabiraj Chakravarti in the royal court of Swargadeo Rudra Singha, has also been presented to Rashtrapati Bhavan library for preservation and display.
Notably, under the guidance and patronage of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and on the instructions of chief secretary, Ravi Kota, the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra Society coordinated with various satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) across Assam to collect the sanchipat manuscripts.