A protest entailing 31 epigraphists who have been ignored by the government while restructuring the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was held on Thursday. There are about 31 epigraphists on the payrolls of the ASI posted in Mysuru, Nagpur, Lucknow, and Chennai and they staged a silent demonstration in front of their respective offices.
This was to urge the government to reconsider and review the restructuring exercise of ASI under which not a single new post had been created for the epigraphy branch.
The epigraphists called for strengthening the epigraphy branch to help “complete the pending work of 100 years” by creating more posts.
The All India Archaeological Services Association said in a release that India is a repository for rich epigraphical wealth and these epigraphs are ancient records left by the people of bygone ages throwing light on various aspects of political, administrative, cultural, economic, religious and social history. There is no Indian history without epigraphy and epigraphs are the only authentic sources for understanding the true history and culture of Indian people, the association said.
It said though the epigraphy branch has 135 years of legacy, due to the lack of sufficient staff, only 50% of the inscriptions have been published in departmental publications. “Unfortunately, in recent times, thousands of inscriptions which are storehouses of our history and culture, are being destroyed in the name of developmental activities like repair, renovation of the temples, mining, quarrying, etc,” the association added.
It called for strengthening the epigraphy branch to save the ancient Indian historical data and pointed out that the present existing staff of 31 epigraphists all over India, was not sufficient for the “noble task of rescuing inscriptions from their permanent destruction,” the association said.
It is difficult with meagre strength of 31 posts in the branch to undertake village-to-village survey of the country; to copy and study inscriptions written in different regional languages and scripts, said the epigraphists.
They said in view of the immensity of task of surveying, deciphering, studying, and publishing of inscriptions found in various languages with local dialects used in different States, at least two trained epigraphists should be posted in each State.