Three foundational Indian manuscripts including the epic Mahabharata, Kalhana’s 12th-century historical chronicle Rajatarangini, and Kautilya’s ancient treatise on statecraft, the Arthashastra have been officially included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register.
The decision was finalised during the 11th session of the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP), held in Jakarta,Indonesia, marking a landmark international recognition of India’s civilisational heritage and documentary legacy.
Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat hailed the inclusion, which recognises works representing key facets of ancient Indian intellectual traditions.
The inscribed texts include a 400-year-old birch-bark Mahabharata manuscript in Sharada script preserving a Kashmiri recension, a 16th-century palm-leaf manuscript of Kautilya's Arthashastra preserved at the Oriental Research Institute in Mysore, and Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, a Sanskrit chronicle composed between 1148 and 1150 CE detailing the kings of Kashmir.
The nomination dossiers were prepared by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). With these three additions, India’s total number of inscriptions on the Asia-Pacific Regional Register stands at six.