"The first ever mission has been launched to collect data on manuscripts housed in a variety of places, including shrines, temples, monasteries, madrasas and with private owners," its secretary Zaffar Iqbal Manhas said in Srinagar.
He said the "Mission for Manuscripts" will catalogue the state's ancient documentary wealth and ensure that basic conservation practices are followed to halt their rapid decay.
"The main objective of the project is digitalisation, microfilming and cataloguing of the state's wealth of manuscripts by using the latest available technology at global level," he said.
Manhas claimed the state has the largest repository of manuscripts in northern India, with an estimated 20,000 texts in dozens of languages.
"We have a 5,000 year history, this is why the oldest manuscripts that India possesses are a set of sixth century Buddhist texts that were found buried in the hills of Kashmir about 60 years ago," he said.
Researchers in the state have found rare Sanskrit, Tibetan, Arabic and Persian treatises on such subjects as diabetes, astrophysics, interpretation of dreams, surgical instruments, concepts of time and the art of war, Manhas said, adding "We want to catalogue and preserve the same for all generations to come."
"The academy will involve religious scholars in this hunt for ancient volumes," he said.
"After collecting the manuscripts, we would promote and facilitate research and scholarship based on manuscripts," Manhas said.
Training will also be provided for conservation and preservation of manuscripts through awareness and financial support.
He said there were plans to publish manuscripts as well.
Manhas said the academy in its manuscripts library here had about 700 rare manuscripts on history, music, medicine, religion, astronomy and other subjects.
He asked private collectors, shrines, temples, madrasas and monasteries to register their manuscripts with the academy.
"We will provide free consultation for preservation of such manuscripts," he said.
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