India

India’s Mahabharata, Rajatarangini and Arthashastra Enlisted in UNESCO Memory of the World Asia‑Pacific Register

By PTI

Manuscripts of the Mahabharata, Kalhana’s 12th‑century chronicle Rajatarangini and Kautilya’s Arthashastra have been added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Asia‑Pacific Regional Register, officials announced on Thursday, November 5, 2026. The announcement was made by PIB Culture on X, which also posted photographs of the UNESCO certificates. 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 it had played an important role in preparing the nomination dossiers for all three works. Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat described the inscriptions as a landmark recognition of India’s extraordinary documentary and civilisational heritage. He noted that the timeless works embody India’s traditions of historical inquiry, philosophical thought and statecraft, and that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership the country’s civilisational legacy is receiving unprecedented global recognition. With the new entries, India’s total number of inscriptions in the Regional Register rises to six. Earlier, in 2024, illustrated manuscripts of the Ramcharitamanas, a 15th‑century Panchatantra manuscript and the Sahrdayaloka‑Locana were inscribed. The certificates list the three new inscriptions as: ‘The Birch‑bark (burjapatra) Manuscript of Mahabharata—A Perennial Epic of South Asia’ housed at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune; ‘Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Ancient palm‑leaf Manuscript on Governance and Statecraft’ housed at the Oriental Research Institute, Mysuru; and ‘The Manuscript of Rajatarangini by Kalhana: A Twelfth‑century Chronicle of Kashmir’ housed at the Oriental Research Library, Sri Pratap Singh Library Complex, Srinagar.