Rare Books & Manuscripts Section

Manuscripts are considered as reflection of the past which vividly presents a panorama of the religious, social, cultural and political status of the society. Bhai Gurdas Library, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar has a treasure trove of 1637 priceless manuscripts in Rare books and Manuscripts Section and 1062 manuscripts in Prof. Pritam Singh Section relating to Punjab history, culture, Sikh religion, folk medicine and other faiths having a lot of information about Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and North West frontier province of Pakistan. These manuscripts are in Punjabi/Gurmukhi script, Hindi, Sanskrit, Uriya, Urdu and Persian.

For optimum and purposeful use of the manuscripts, their digitization has been done. A catalogue of bibliographic description of manuscripts has been compiled in five volumes. The entire catalogue is available in print as well as CD/DVD form and also can be accessed from library page of University website. The manuscripts have been a perennial source of information and inspiration for local and overseas scholars. Scholars and researchers have been fascinated and charmed to explore these manuscripts to interpret the feelings, sentiments, preachings and experiences of the authors. These manuscripts are embodiments of sacred Bani of Gurus and writings of great poets of Punjab like Baba Farid, Waris Shah, Bule Shah, Damodar etc.

Conservation as well as preservation facilities are available for the manuscripts. Hand lamination of brittle manuscripts has been done by the trained staff of the library. Fumigation chamber is available for chemical treatment of infected manuscripts. The main body of the text of these manuscripts pertains to religion, Punjab history, medicine, Punjab’s rich cultural and literary heritage. These priceless manuscripts are kept in optimizers and are used by the scholars for research purpose. Library has 5188 rare books in Rare books and Manuscripts Section and 9804 Rare books in Prof. Pritam Singh Section also and digitization of these books is in progress. Most of these books relate to Indian as well as Punjab history, Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam, other faiths and various movements. These rare books are available in Gurmukhi/Punjabi, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu/Persian and English language.