Bhubaneswar: On the first death anniversary of eminent tribal scholar and Kui exponent, Pandit Raghunath Rath, his son handed over his precious and valuable collection of 2,500 books and journals to the National Archives of India’s Bhubaneswar Record Centre on Sunday here.
The books were handed over to Dr T Hussain, Deputy Director of Archives NAI, New Delhi.
A self-trained anthropologist, the Raghunath’s passion was the study of the history, culture and traditions of the Kandhs. He spent many years of his life with the Kandhs tribal’s and had mastered the Kui language.
In his nearly six decades of studies, he had observed and recorded the transformation and changes that were happening to these original people, and how so called modern development was obliterating and obscuring the ancient traditions. Rath has written more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles. He was conferred with many awards, including the Sahitya Academy and the Itihas Sankalan Samiti award.
Speaking on the occasion, INTACH State convenor and former DGP Amiya Bhusan Tripathy said about the great work done by Raghunath Rath.
He requested the NAI Deputy Director for making available many important and valuable records pertaining to Odisha which are kept at New Delhi.
He said that some important records which include Orissa State Agency (1917-1947) in 18 Volumes. ‘Balasore Factory Records’ and ‘Bengal Public Consultations’(22 Vols). The Original Will of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in which he had bequeathed the Koh-I-Noor to the Jagannath Temple at Puri too should be displayed at the Bhubaneswar office. Presently, scholars and researchers from Odisha have to go to Delhi for their work.
The Deputy Director promised that copies of the Odisha papers will be sent within a week’s time.
Former State Election Commissioner Sanjib Hota, Assistant Director of Archives Dr Lalatendu Dash Mohapatra, and noted historian and researcher Anil Dhir graced the occasion. Among others, Dr D P Pattanayak, Dr Bimalendu Mohanty, Dr Sanjay Acharya and Dr Jatin Nayak attended the event.
Dhir said that another 2500 books would soon be handed over to the Odisha State Archives.
