Manuscripts For Sale

(Audrey) At first glance, it looked like any other antique/souvenir store in Delhi—

But then, I saw the shelf, which I had been tipped off about and why I came—

It was full of what the shopkeeper identified as manuscripts, i.e. hand-written texts. I quickly set to work tearing apart the shelf (ever so gently, of course). What awaited me broke my heart.

I found several hand-written works, maybe a dozen altogether—

None were marked, most were missing pages, all were in bad condition (not helped from being stuffed without any padding or wrapping in a shelf together). The manuscripts were mostly in Sanskrit, also a few in Hindi. The missing pages were easily explained by the shopkeeper—we often sell just a few pages of a manuscript, maybe 5.

To give you an idea of the bad shape of the manuscripts at this shop, take a look at my pictures of what was once a scroll, i.e. a single long piece of paper that was rolled up. Nowadays it is folded and crumbling to pieces—

None of the manuscripts at this shop were older than the 19th century. I regularly look at 16th and 17th century works that are in far better condition. Why the discrepency? If you’re a manuscript, it really pays to have landed in a quality library.

On the one hand, manuscripts are property, no doubt. But I have two issues with selling them in fragments and in such condition. First, the scholarly appeal. I travel all over India looking for manuscripts because they preserve premodern and early modern India’s history, culture, and literature. These texts tell us things that we otherwise couldn’t know about humanity’s achievements and our history. But there’s a catch. I’ve got to know about a manuscript, where it’s held, and it has to exist in readable condition before I can use it in my research, before it can contribute to our modern understanding of the past. Being for sale as kitch in a store does not help the quest of scholars in any way.

Second, the legal argument. What this store is doing is blatantly illegal. They admitted to me that they regularly sell to foreigners. I asked them if they ever alerted foreign buyers to Indian laws that ban taking manuscripts out of the country. The answer: No, we’re selling them, so you see… Personal interest I understand, but the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act of 1972 is a real law and section three is quite clear—no individuals taking manuscripts out of India. The above Act also mandates that stores register their antiquities (including manuscripts older than 75 years) with the authorities. I’m guessing that might be a priority on the back-burner for this shop.

But there is a silver-lining to every dark cloud. Of the shelf of “manuscripts” that I examined, only about 1/5 of the materials were real manuscripts. The rest were printed books from the era in India when Sanskrit and Hindi works were often printed to look like manuscripts, meaning that they were printed on sheets of paper that were unbound and horizontally long. It’s easy to tell the difference if you know what you’re looking for (paper quality, whether the writing is steady, ink, etc.). On my way out I asked the shopkeeper if she knew that what she was selling people were largely not actually hand-written works. Her response—I can’t tell the difference, so I tell them they are manuscripts. Good—keep that work coming and consider turning the real deals over to those who can actually do them justice.

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Tags: 1972, antiquities, art, books, Delhi, Hindi, illegal, India, law, legal, manuscripts, sale, sanskrit