UNESCO Adds Three Indian Manuscripts to Asia-Pacific Memory of the World Register

Manuscripts of the Mahabharata, Kautilya's Arthashastra and Kalhana's Rajatarangini have been inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register, marking a significant international recognition of India's rich intellectual and civilisational heritage, officials said on Thursday.

The decision was taken at the 11th Session of the Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register held in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) said. The IGNCA played an important role in preparing the nomination dossiers for all three manuscripts.

According to certificates shared by PIB Culture on X, the Mahabharata inscription is titled 'The Birch-bark (burjapatra) Manuscript of Mahabharata -- A Perennial Epic of South Asia' and is housed at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune.

The Arthashastra manuscript, described as an ancient palm-leaf work on governance and statecraft, is preserved at the Oriental Research Institute in Mysuru.

The third inscription is 'The Manuscript of Rajatarangini by Kalhana: A Twelfth-century Chronicle of Kashmir', housed at the Oriental Research Library, Sri Pratap Singh Library Complex, Srinagar.

Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat welcomed the recognition, describing it as a landmark acknowledgement of India's documentary and civilisational heritage.

He said the works represent the country's traditions of historical inquiry, philosophical thought and statecraft, whose wisdom continues to inspire humanity. With the latest additions, India's total inscriptions in the regional register have risen to six.

In 2024, illustrated manuscripts of Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas, a rare 15th-century manuscript of Panchatantra animal fables and moral stories, and Sahrdayaloka-Locana, a text on Indian poetics, were included in the register.