Assam’s Xasi paat to get digital makeover: Over 1,000 manuscripts set for digitisation

Guwahati, Aug 8: Assam’s rich literary heritage is on the brink of a digital transformation. To preserve the state’s ancient Xasi paat manuscripts, Dibrugarh University has initiated an ambitious plan to digitise and make accessible a vast collection of these rare and unseen texts.

In a significant step towards this preservation effort, the university recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nanda Talukdar Foundation (NTF) to digitize over 1,000 rare and ancient manuscripts housed in the university's Assamese Department.

Through this partnership, the manuscripts will be meticulously digitised and made available in the public domain, allowing scholars and researchers worldwide to access these valuable resources. This initiative represents the first large-scale effort to make rare Assamese manuscripts publicly accessible and to preserve them for future generations.

These manuscripts, written in Old Assamese, Sanskrit, Tai, and Bengali, cover a wide range of subjects, including Vaishnavism, Buddhism, and ancient customs of Assam, reflecting the region's diverse cultural and religious heritage.

Parmanand Sonowal, Registrar of Dibrugarh University, stated that the partnership with the Nanda Talukdar Foundation is a significant step towards making Assam's vast and diverse heritage accessible to the world. “We hope this initiative will inspire further efforts in preserving our cultural legacy,” said Sonowal.