Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library (Patna) to publish its Catalogue

PATNA: Tagore National Fellow Prof S P Verma on Sunday delivered a lecture on 'Persian, Turkish and Indian paintings in the Khuda Bakhsh Collection' under the Khuda Bakhsh Extension Lecture at the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library. Patna University VC Shambhu Nath Singh presided over the function.

Library director Imtiaz Ahmad spoke about the progress being made in connection with the compilation of a descriptive catalogue of Illustrated Manuscripts of the Khuda Bakhsh Collection. He expressed the hope that by next year this catalogue would be available in print.

Verma said the rare illustrated manuscripts at the library, which related to a period spanning more than half-a-millennium - from the 15th century to the 19th century - make this collection a centre of international repute. He cited in particular the four manuscripts of the library, identified among the Manuscripts Treasure of India by the National Mission of Manuscripts. These include two Arabic manuscripts, Kitab al-Hashaish and Kitab al-Tasreef and two Persian manuscripts, Diwan-e Hafiz and Tarikh-e Khandan-e Timuriyah. The last-mentioned has also been inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2011, he said.

He displayed digital images of the paintings of different styles - Persian, Turkish and Indian - that are in the Khuda Bakhsh Collection and dwelt at length on the features of these paintings. He outlined the past antecedents going back to ancient India and the reinvigorating effect brought by the Central Asian and Iranian schools along with the new experiments that were imbibed from European paintings in the Mughal period. He also highlighted the distinct features of the Patna Qalam, the local style of painting that developed in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries, and represented a fine blend of traditional Mughal and new European influences.

In his presidential speech, Prof. Shambhu Nath Singh paid rich tribute to the founder of the library, Khuda Bakhsh Khan, and appreciated the work of cataloguing of illustrated manuscripts. He expressed the hope that this would enable a larger number of people across the world to get acquainted with the rarities of the library.

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