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THE MEHERJIRANA ARCHIVAL PROJECT
The originals of the following microfilmed documents are held in the First Dastoor Meherjirana Library, Tarota Bazar, Navsari 396445, India. Any enquiry relating to the manuscripts / books microfilmed herein maybe made directly to the Trustees of the Meherjirana Library , Navsari.
No part of these microfilms can be used,
reproduced by any means electronic mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
for any commercial purpose. All legal rights pertaining to the original materials
will be retained by the Trustees of the first M
eherjirana
Library.
The creation of the microfilms, has been co-ordinated by the Unesco Assisted Parsi Zoroastrian Project for the preservation and promotion of the Parsi Zoroastrian culture and heritage, for the express purpose of preserving and making available these for scholarship and research in the field of oriental studies.
DETAILS OF THE PROJECT FOR WHICH ASSISTANCE IS SOUGHT
The first Dastoor MEHERJIRANA Library Navsari, was established in 1872. The promoters of this library were the scions of the MEHERJIRANA family. The library has been considerably enriched by the presentation of important Oriental manuscripts on oriental studies by members of the same family. For over 125 years the institution has been presented with rare manuscripts as well rare printed books.
This library has important manuscripts on Persian and Gujarati literature, medical literature, historical & cultural documentation, rare mughal records, and documents from the mughal court, legends and myths. It has a very large and useful collection of manuscripts on Zoroastianism written in Avesta, Pahlavi, Pazand, Persian and Gujarati. It has a number of manuscripts large and small, the major portion of them treating of not one , but many and varied subjects.
Some of the manuscripts extending to more than 1000 pages of foolscap size are transcribed by the learned Dastoors themselves. A few have been received as gifts and some purchases have been made to add to the collection.
In the MEHERJIRANA collection are embodied all the important Iranian manuscripts of the Mulla Feroze Labrary, Dastoorji Erachji MEHERJIRANA himself having transcribed them from the originals. Various ritualistic subtleties and intricacies have been explained in this collection and have been gathered together from whatever places they could be found and preserved in this rare collection. Many topics on Parsi customs have been collected and preserved for the guidance of the Parsi community. There are also collected here many important potions of Persian Rivayats scattered in public and private libraries thus adding to the usefulness of the MEHERJIRANA Library Navsari.
It is proposed that the First Dastoor MEHERJIRANA Library collection be microfilmed and a copy of the microfilm be retained along with a Reader, as per the enclosed leaflet, at the library in Navsari.
Since the infrastructure for correct storage and preservation is available at the Archival centre of the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (IGNCA) New Delhi, along with the support services a microfilm copy and the first generation microfilm is to be maintained at the IGNCA for the use of research and scholarship.
Subsequent to the microfilm being produced and the Reader being purchased the microfilm of the books which are not in the current catalogue will be provided to a scholar of national repute who will then be able to produce a catalogue of these manuscripts and books to update the original catalogue.
ESTIMATED COST OF PROJECT WITH ITEM WISE DETAILS OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE SOUGHT
APPLICATION OF FUNDS
SOURCES OF FUNDS
