Miscellaneous News

Indian Manuscripts in UNESCO Register

November 14 , 2026 8 hrs 0 min 26 0

Three Indian literary works — Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, the Mahabharata and Kautilya’s Arthashastra — were inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Regional Register for Asia and the Pacific at the 11th MOWCAP(Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific) session held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
UNESCO launched the Memory of the World (MoW) Programme in 1992 to preserve and provide access to important documentary heritage.
It maintains three registers: International, Regional and National.
Rajatarangini, written in Sanskrit by Kalhana around 1148–1150 CE, records the history of Kashmir through eight books called Tarangas.
Mahabharata, traditionally attributed to Sage Vyasa, narrates the Kurukshetra war and explores Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. It contains the 700-verse Bhagavad Gita.
Arthashastra, attributed to Kautilya (Chanakya), deals with statecraft, administration, taxation, economy and diplomacy in 15 books.
Arthashastra explains the Saptanga Theory, which identifies seven elements of the state: Swami, Amatya, Janapada, Durga, Kosa, Danda and Mitra.