pune it was a rare treat not only for historians philosophers but even the students community or for that matter the ordinary citizens when the bhandarkar oriental research institute bori displayed about 40 manuscripts on saturday some of which even dates back to 11 century ad or for that matter even the 6th century bcwhile the exhibition an oneoff event was organised as part of the national mission of manuscripts completing two years secretary of bori saroja bhate said the basic idea is to create awareness amongst the common citizens about the importance of these age old scripts and documents preserved on paper palmleaves and even birchbark bhate said the national mission initiated by the ministry of culture in february 7 2003 is aimed at preserving the priceless legacy which lies scattered largely unprotected uncatalogued unresearched and unpublicised across the country in many institutions and among a large number of ordinary peoplewhile the 11 century ad copperplates of kirtiraja the nizams album the 16th century sanskrit edition of the mahabharata and the bhagwatpuran were some of the key attractions bhate said the exhibition is also aimed at fostering a research attitude in the minds of the young generation towards the ageold manuscripts preserved in various languages forms and formats it is not only religion or philosophy but there is so much to learn in areas of arts culture or even science also she said as a history research student ramesh nikam who visited the exhibition commented its amazing that this institution is a storehouse of such a rich collection of manuscripts covering a wide variety of subjects and branches like religious works in the devanagari script in sanskrit pali and prakrit languages from the hindus the buddhas and the jains muslim religious works in the arabic and farsi scripts literary works in the sharada devanagari malayalam tamil telegu and kannada scripts vedic literature puraanic texts and works on grammar music drama stotras tantra medicine and philosophical systems