J-K govt putsrare manuscripts on public display

As a part of the novel initiative to showcase the state's treasure-trove of heritage and history, theJammu and Kashmir government today launched a project named 'Object of the Month' by announcing public display of the rare manuscript 'Shahnama' at Dogra Art Museum here.
Under the initiative, the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums, has started putting for public display a special museum object for each month.
In the maiden series under the 'Object of the Month' initiative for February, Minister for Culture and Finance Haseeb Drabu unveiled the rare manuscript 'Shahnama' at Dogra Art Museum, Mubarak Mandi Heritage Complex.
'Shahnama' (the Book of Kings) is a long epic poem written by renowned Persian poet Ferdowsi.

He started writing it in 977 AD and completed it on 8 March 1010.
Consisting of some 50,000 "distichs" or couplets (2-line verses), the 'Shahnama' is the world's longest epic poem written by a single poet.

It is the national epic of Iran and tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of the Persian Empire from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.
Iran, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and the greater region influenced by the Persian culture including Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Dagestan celebrate this national epic.
The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of the ethno-national cultural identity of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

"The initiative will facilitate display of rare and unique objects from the reserve collection of the museums in the state which could not be earlier displayed due to paucity of space in the museums," Drabu said.
He the 'Object of the Month' activity will continue throughout the year at the museum here and Sri Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar.
The minister, on this occasion, also inaugurated a mini museum at Mubarak Mandi Heritage Complex on the theme 'Archive's Selected Heritage' where historical documents, farmans, orders, books have been put on display for public.
The museum also houses several handwritten manuscripts including the scripts of 'Shahnama' and 'Sikandernama' in Persian that are of interest to history buffs.

Pertinently, the special calendar published by the Directorate of Archives, Archaeology and Museums for 2017 has also incorporated paintings from 'Shahnama'.