National Survey is an intensive state-wide programme with the aim to locate every manuscript in the country. All institutions, new and old, private collections of manuscripts, in every district, town and village are brought under the purview of the National Survey.

• The National Survey is the first step towards creating a National Electronic Catalogue of Manuscripts.
• The National Survey operates at the grass-roots level, and therefore, has the potential of reaching out to unknown collections and also involves the public at large in the Mission's endeavours
• The National Survey for Manuscripts is the stepping stone for the more extensive Post-Survey
• The National Survey aims at creating a manuscript map of every district, every State, and eventually the whole country

• The National Survey takes place in a State over a period of 5 days.
• It is preceded by days of publicity and awareness campaigns.
• 1 State Coordinator is in charge of the Survey at State level; 2 District Coordinators are appointed in each district, preferably one from the administration, like the Chief Education Officer, and the other a scholar with expertise in languages or manuscripts; 50 Surveyors from among teachers,researchers and students map each district locating manuscripts and documenting them in the Questionnaire and Manus Data forms.
• During the Survey, the Mission also provides advice on storage and basic conservation to manuscript holders

Do you have manuscripts lying at home? Do you know of manuscripts on other homes temples, bhandars, maths, madrassas, museums, libraries? If yes, please contact us . The Mission does not seek to take away manuscripts-only to document them. The Mission will accept donations but will not forcibly take away manuscripts from their owners.

• The Mission began the National Survey in 2004- 05 as a Pilot Project in 3 states—Orissa,Bihar and Uttar Pradesh A total of 53 districts were covered— 30 in Orissa, 13 in Uttar Pradesh and 10 in Bihar. In the Pilot Project itself, the Mission unearthed 6, 50, 000 manuscripts and about 35,000 repositories.
• Drawing upon the experience of the Pilot project, the next round of Survey in 2005-2006 was held in Delhi, Manipur, Karnataka and Assam . In Delhi, about 85,000 manuscripts were found. The Survey in Manipur was extremely successful despite several pockets being inaccessible and about 10,000 manuscripts were located. Likewise, in Assam, about 42,000 manuscripts were discovered. Around 1,50,000 manuscripts were found in Karnataka. In Gujarat, the survey was initiated by the coordination of the Lalbhai Dalapatbhai Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad.
• In 2006-07, the National Survey took place in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu.The Manuscript Resource Centre in Himachal Pradesh, Himachal Academy of Arts, Languages and Culture acted as the coordinating body in the State. The National Survey was successful in locating approximately 20, 000 manuscripts across the State, with local scripts like Takri coming to the focus. The Survey also saw the school students getting involved in the awareness campaigns to promote the documentation and conservation of manuscripts.The Manuscript Resource Centre, Dept. of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, Kurukshetra University was also active in organizing the Survey in the State of Haryana. The Survey has beensuccessful in locating approximately 500 manuscripts. In Rajasthan, the Survey was initiated by the coordination of the Rajasthan State Archives. Out of total 33 Districts 19 Districts are already surveyed and an amount of 7, 50,001 Manuscripts are identified.
• In 2007-08, the Mission conducted National Survey of Manuscripts in all 18 Districts ofChhattisgarh and in all 16 Districts of Arunachal Pradesh. In Chhattishgarh, the Survey was conducted by the coordination of the Directorates of Archives and Museums, Chhattisgarh and in Arunachal Pradesh, it was conducted by the Coordination of Dept. of Cultural Affairs,Directorate of Research, (Culture, History, Archeology, Museum, Archives & Philosophy),Itanagar.
• In the financial year 2007-08 survey was initiated in the State of Madhya Pradesh by the coordination of the Directorates of Archives and Museums, Bhopal; in Goa by the Directorate of Archives & Archeology, (Govt. of Goa), Panaji and in the State of Jammu & Kashmir by the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Le
• In April 2012, the Mission has completed the Survey work (which was initiated in the year 2007)in all 13 Districts of Uttarakhand by the coordination of the Uttaranchal Sanskrit Academy, Haridwar and started processing for the survey of Sikkim and Mizoram

Download Guidelines for National Survey form

Download Sample Questionnaire form