বাংলা পুথি ও ডিজিটাল মানববিদ্যা : পাঠ, সংরক্ষণ, সমস্যা ও সম্ভাবনার নতুন দিগন্ত/ Bengali Manuscript and Digital Humanities : Reading, Preservation, Limitations and New Horizons of Possibilities

Abstract

‘Puthi’ has played an important role in Bengali society and culture. Before the invention of printing press, this ‘Puthi’ was a special medium for spreading knowledge, religious education, literature and folklore. This manuscripts were mady by ‘Talapatra’, ‘Teretapatra’, ‘Bhurjapatra’ and later on ‘Tulata Kagaz’. Pandits and scribes copied these manuscripts and through them these were spread in different places. The culture of reading ‘Puthies’ were developed especially in medieval Bengal. In the illiterate rural community of that time, various stories were spread through reading ‘Puthies’. Therefore, the ‘Puthi’ is valuable not only as a literary document but also as an important historical and cultural document of Bengali society and culture. Since the ‘Puthi’ were written by hand, their preservation was not always easy. Due to lack of preservation or ignorance, many manuscript have been destroyed or lost over time. Many manuscript are scattered in rural communities and under private ownership, whose proper cataloguing or preservation has not yet been possible. The diversity of scripts and languages creates complex problems in the study and practice of manuscripts. Therefore, many limitations can be observed in the traditional method of preserving and studying manuscripts. In this regard, the use of technologies such as Digital Humanities in the modern era opens up new possibilities in the study of manuscripts. This work is further accelerated through the use of various tools of digital humanities. However, digital humanities also has several limitations. Despite limitations, digital technology has opened up new directions in the study, preservation and practice of ‘Bangla Puthi’. In the context of modern methods like digital humanities– reading, preservation and analysis of ‘Puthi’ provides new possibilities in the field of study of Bangla manuscripts and the main purpose of this article is to explore the possibilities, problems, limitations and new paths of Bangla manuscript study in the light of this Digital Humanities.