Rare Religious Manuscripts Discovered in Dhaulpur Former Royal Family

Rare Religious Manuscripts Discovered in Dhaulpur Former Royal Family
Under Gyan Bharatam campaign, 11 important manuscripts digitally documented

Raipur, May 2026 : Under the ongoing Gyan Bharatam Manuscript Survey Campaign, 11 important manuscripts have been digitally documented.

Within the Manuscript Survey Campaign being conducted in the Surguja district, rare and historically significant manuscripts continue to surface. Collections of palm-leaf manuscripts related to the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, as well as texts on tantra, mantra, and spiritual practices are being identified and documented from various parts of the district. In this sequence, 11 rare religious and tantric manuscripts have been recovered from the former royal family of Dhaulpur.

Upon receiving information about these special manuscripts, the Chief Executive Officer of the District Panchayat and nodal officer of the district-level committee of the Gyan Bharatam Manuscript Survey Campaign, Vinay Agrawal visited the residence of manuscript custodian Martand Singh Deo in Ambikapur. During the visit, Aditya Singh Deo provided a detailed introduction to the manuscripts.

He informed that poet late Ramnath Bhatt composed the Arkasela genealogy in 1959, spanning 62 pages, under the instructions of Maharaja Raghunath Sharan Singh Deo. Additionally, under the guidance of late Surya Pratap Singh Deo, the royal priest authored texts including Vandurga Mahavidya (52 pages), Kali Tantra (133 pages), and, on the orders of the then Maharaja, Pandit Devdutt compiled texts on yantra-mantra and vashikaran practices (48 pages).

During the campaign, a manuscript of Vandurga Mahamantra written in 1842 was also discovered. In addition, other preserved manuscripts include Neelkanth Stotra, Adkali Tantra, Mahamoha Mantra, Vishnu Sahasranama Rudra Shap Vimochan Mantra, and Hanuman Stotra, among several others.

District Panchayat CEO Vinay Agrawal reviewed the digital preservation and uploading process of the manuscripts and personally uploaded them to the portal. He stated that this initiative is a highly significant step toward preserving ancient knowledge traditions and cultural heritage. Manuscripts are not only symbols of religious faith but also invaluable treasures of our historical and cultural consciousness, which must be preserved for future generations.

Harnek Singh, the in-charge officer from the Anthropological Survey of India, Jagdalpur, described these manuscripts as extremely significant from historical and cultural perspectives.

On this occasion, district committee member Sharda Agrawal provided training to surveyors from Sitapur on the manuscript uploading process. The program was attended by Gyan Bharatam district committee member and surveyor Gaurav Pathak.