The Bihar Research Society (BRS), one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country that boasts of a rare collection of manuscripts of the ancient Nalanda and Vikramshila universities, has become a haunted place. Forget about the scholars, the institute, which has served as the most reliable source of Buddhist studies across the world, has no staff for past many months, officials said.
The state government had sanctioned eight posts, including that of research assistants and research and publication officer, to carry out its routine functions in 2009, when it was taken over and merged with Patna Museum. The director of Patna Museum was given the additional charge the BRS.
Set up in 1915 as the Bihar and Orissa Research Society by the then lieutenant governor of erstwhile Bihar and Orissa, CS Bailey, to promote historical research, the BRS has been kept locked since June 2021 after its lone research assistant, Shiv Kumar Mishra, was transferred to Nawada Museum as assistant curator.
The state culture department has now proposed to give the charge of BRS to its regional deputy director Vinay Kumar, who is already burdened with the charge of eight museums located in various districts.
Till about a few years ago, the BRS has been visited by scholars from across the world for research on history, languages, literature and Buddhist studies. The rich repository of BRS includes around 10,000 manuscripts, which were brought back from Tibet by famous scholar Rahul Sankrityayan and donated to the BRS during the period of 1929-38.
BRS is the second oldest research institute in the country after Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Rahul Sankrityayan’s collection in BRS possession include manuscripts written in gold, rare manuscripts that were taken to Tibet between 7th and 11th century from ancient Nalanda and Vikramshila universities before they were destroyed, about 600 thanka paitings and hundreds of unique books pertaining to ancient history and theology. Owing to its rich collection, the Naritasan Institute of Buddhist Studies, Narita City, Japan, had collaborated with the BRS in 1989 for publication of Rahul Sankrityayan’s manuscripts in Sanskrit. The Tohoku University, Japan, had published the catalogue for collection of Sankrityayan’s manuscripts in the late seventies, said a research scholar.
The BRS, then called as Bihar and Orissa Research Society, had set up the historic Patna Museum in 1917 in its own premises as private entity near Patna High Court building. Both the institutes were shifted in its current building in 1927 on Budh Marg. BRS was allocated southern portion of the Patna Museum premises. Later, Bihar government took over the Patna Museum along with the part of BRS building, which housed it. The state government also took over the BRS in 2009 and made it part of the Patna Museum.
Additional secretary of culture department, Deepak Anand, also director of museums and archaeology, said the department is planning to give the charge of BRS to Vinay Kumar, who heads Patna Museum along with other seven museums, some of which are located in Bhojpur and Buxar districts. “One single officer has been handling the charge of six-seven museums for want of manpower. The Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) is expected recruit 12-15 staff members for museums over the next two-three months. We are also looking for some urgent steps to operationalise the BRS soon,” said Anand.
A former research scholar, who spent years to study in the BRS, said conservation of rare manuscripts and paintings had been hampered as the institute has been shut for the past several months. “The Bihar (and Orissa) Research Society’s journal, which was once edited by noted scholar KP Jaiswal, was being eagerly awaited by the research community in the world. The first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, had also written an obituary on demise of Jaiswal in the BRS journal,” he pointed out, adding that publication of journal has been discontinued since 1993 for want of scholars.