Lokmat News Network
by Mehboob Inamdar
Chhatrapati Chambhajinagar: The Knowledge Resource Centre (KRC), which was earlier known as the Central Library, of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu), has turned into the biggest treasure trove of books in Marathwada.
Talking to this newspaper, director of KRC Dr Vaishali Khaparde said that there are over 3.99 lakh printed books, 3 million e-books, and 3,414 rare books along with hundreds of magazines and journals on current affairs. She said that rare books are available on social, cultural, historical, geographic, linguistics, and literary subjects besides academics.
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45 K handwritten books of Raje Shamraj Rai
“The then chief minister of the State Yashwantrao Chavan laid the foundation stone of the library building while the then President of the country Dr Sarvapalli Rahakrishnan inaugurated the library building in 1966. The large collection of 45,000 handwritten books were acquired from Raje Shamraj Rai Rajwant Bahadur, Hyderabad, in 1960,” she said.
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Varieties of rare books
--Handwritten copies of Ramayan, Mahabharat, Leelacharitya, Dnyaneshwari, Upanishads, Purana are available in the KRC
--There are 3,414 handwritten books in five different languages and 10 different scripts
--There are 24 handwritten books with photographs
--Image of 92 inscriptions
--Images of 18 Marathi inscriptions
--48 items of medieval periods
--Literature related to Mahanubhav is available in the ‘Sakal’ script
--Many literary books are also available in Devanagari and Modi scripts.
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Delux editions of rare books
The rare books published in the country as early as 1638, 1665 and 1681 about 380 volumes consisting of texts, commentaries, translations and critical studies on the Bhagavad Gita. The names of some of the illustrated deluxe editions of the rare books are as follows;
--Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
--Paintings in Buddhist Cave-Temples of Ajanta by John Griffiths in two volumes (1896)
--History of Persian Art in five volumes
--Volumes of Tilak in his own handwriting
--Collected works of Rober Browning (17 volumes)
--Samuel Butler (40 volumes)
--Alexander Pope (22 volumes).
--Walter Scott (100 volumes
--Constitution of India (handwritten copy of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar)
--Princes and Chiefs of India
--Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions
--Tree diagram of Mahanubhav Panth
--Sthanpothi (on the geography of the State)
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Total books
--Total printed books 3.99 lakh
--3 millions e-books
--5,499 Ph D thesis (uploaded online)
--45,000 handwritten books
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Hundreds of student-ready books daily
More than 1000 boys and girls who are pursuing different postgraduate, Ph D research or preparing for the competitive examinations study in the central library daily.