Mumbai's libraries 13th century books may not reach the 21st

PAGES FROM THE PAST : The 17th century handwritten ShahnamahThey built it like a cathedral: lofty Gothic arches, exquisite stained-glass windows and a vaulted teakwood ceiling, 100 ft high. But for most bibliophiles, the 124-year-old Mumbai University is a lavish tomb.Behind the majestic reading room in the five-storied stack house lie the carcasses of eight lakh books, rotting slowly in their leather jackets. Some have broken spines, others are infested with white ants inexorably working their way through the fragile, brittle pages. And many are over 300 years old.The resident "undertaker" is assistant librarian Sarojini Potdar, who has struggled for 30 years to protect her hapless wards from extinction. She does it with touching diligence and a measly government handout of Rs 1 lakh a year.In the reading room lie 187 palm-leaf manuscripts dating back to 1235, plus 90 bundles of ancient Sanskrit treatises, all systematically labelled and wrapped in insect-repelling red cloth.Below, in the special collections room, are 4,000 priceless antique volumes including a Latin travelogue published in 1490 with detailed pen-and-ink sketches of Venice, Jerusalem and Palestine. The largest book is a 2.5 ft by 3.5 ft illustrated diary of the Schlagintweit brothers who came on a "Scientific Mission To India and High Asia" in the 1850s. There is also a diary written by one Henry Bechur in 1793, during his imprisonment by "Tippoo" Sultan - probably the first book to be published in Mumbai says Potdar.She is not Mumbai's only literary warden. Behind University Lane, at the charming little neo-Gothic David Sassoon Library, chief librarian Alka Garde is gradually computerising the obsolete book-indexing system to modernise the administrative process. But of the library's 40,000 books, nearly 250 - including a gorgeously illustrated volume called Venomous Snakes of the Indian Peninsula dated 1772 - are crying out for rescue.Further up D.N. Road, the Victorian Gothic J.N. Petit Library has a 17th century handwritten copy of Persian poet Firdausi's Shahnamah. The book is illustrated with luminous miniature paintings. "Ten years ago, we were actually lending it out," says the current librarian, Jehangir Mody, incredulously.Now only scholars and art lovers, under strict supervision it maybe added, refer to theShahnamah - apart of course from the white ants who are studiously nibbling at its pages.Most of this public trust's 1.25 lakh volumes are housed in 20-ft tall antique cases, easy loot for the most amateur booklifter. Of these, 129 rare oeuvres were microfilmed and stored on 19 reels by the US Congress Library, as part of a project on the history of India two years ago.Enthused by this unexpected largesse, Mody requested the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) for a Rs 3 lakh donation and invested in a microfilm reader which will soon be used as a reference tool.There are other musty attics filled with literary gems. Across the road from David Sassoon is the Cercle Literaire, a library with a sizeable collection of 19th century French books. Opposite the Mumbai dockyard stands the K.R. Cama Institute of Oriental Studies it houses several old religious tomes. The Heras Institute at St Xavier's College has an impressive collection of treatises on Indology, some of them over two centuries old. And the Italian-Renaissance-style Bhau Daji Ladd Museum Library in central Byculla boasts a beautiful 17th century Dutch travelogue on the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts."Thanks to philanthropic intellectuals like Lord Montstuart Elphinstone and Dr Bhau Daji Ladd who donated most of their private collections, Mumbai probably has the richest literary heritage in the subcontinent," says local historian Sharada Dwivedi. But its beautiful, old public libraries are among the poorest in the world. a leaf from Women of IndiaThey survive on paltry subscription fees and the occasional donations from members that instantly vanish to plug a leaking roof or repair a crumbling edifice. Some of the money is used to buy racy new novels for pulp hungry members - mostly pensioners and students on a shoestring allowance. "Even today, we can spare barely 5 per cent of our funds to conserve old books," shrugs Garde.The solution may lie in corporate sponsorship, but very few are savvy enough to attract it. An exception is the colonial Asiatic Society Library which has collected nearly Rs 1 crore from localburra sahibs- to set up India's only conservation laboratory in what was once a rat-infested godown.Here moth-eaten tomes are first treated in a rudimentary fumigation chamber. Then each page is carefully dismembered from the spine, "deacidified" in an alkaline solution, bathed with a handshower, dried on racks of plastic wire mesh and clothed in translucent Japanese tissue paper. Finally, the book is rebound on antiquated machines in the traditional method. Next to the lab is a state-of-the-art microfilming department where decaying manuscripts are photographed page by page and stored on celluloid.Situated on the ground floor of the stately, neo-classical Town Hall, the library's most priceless possession is a 14th century handwritten manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy. It was once coveted by Benito Mussolini who offered to pay a king's ransom for the famous work. "This copy is probably the only one of its kind in the world," confirms honorary secretary Vimal Shah. Potential pilferers will be disappointed to know that it is safely stashed away in a bank vault.Another 2,000 precious volumes have been "adopted" by corporate daddies like IDBI, ICICI, Hindustan Lever and the Tatas, but-surprise, surprise- "the municipality and state Government have also contributed generously," says Shah. "Our books need patrons to survive."It is a lesson that other such repositories are learning fast. Now both the Petit and Sassoon Libraries - as well as the Mumbai University - are busy wooing corporate Quixotes to save literature in distress.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 21, 1998 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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Mumbai's libraries 13th century books may not reach the 21st

Mumbai's libraries house books going back to the 13th century. Without support they may not reach the 21st.

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