About Gilgit Manuscripts:
- It was written between the 5" -6" centuries CE, which is the oldest surviving manuscript collection in India.
- It was written on the birch bark folios documents written on pieces of inner layer of the bark of birch trees were found in Kashmir region.
- It contains both canonical and non-canonical Jain and Buddhist works that throw light on the evolution of many religious-philosophical literature.
What are Manuscripts?
- A manuscript is a handwritten composition on paper, bark, cloth, metal, palm leaf or any other material dating back at least seventy-five years that has significant scientific, historical or aesthetic value.
- These are found in hundreds of different languages and scripts. Often, one language is written in a number of different scripts.
- For example, Sanskrit is written in Oriya script, Grantha script, Devanagari script and many other scripts.
- These are distinct from historical records such as epigraphs on rocks, farmans, revenue records which provide direct information on events or processes in history. Manuscripts have knowledge content.
