IIAS will inaugurate its Digitised Rare Manuscripts Library Portal on October 11 during its Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla, alongside a five-day programme of books, scholarship, art and heritage.
Shimla : The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla, will inaugurate its Digitised Rare Manuscripts Library Portal on October 11, 2026, as a major highlight of its Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The portal will be inaugurated at 4 pm at Rashtrapati Niwas by Prof. Reicha Tanwar, Professor and Former Director of the Women Studies Research Centre, Kurukshetra University. The initiative marks an important step towards preserving and disseminating rare manuscript resources through digital technology, making valuable textual heritage more accessible to scholars, researchers, students and the wider academic community. By bringing rare manuscripts to a digital platform, IIAS aims to strengthen research opportunities, support the documentation and preservation of knowledge traditions and encourage further scholarly engagement with India's rich intellectual and cultural legacy.
The inauguration of the portal will form part of a five-day Diamond Jubilee programme being organised by IIAS from October 11 to 15, 2026, bringing together books, scholarship, art, history, heritage and contemporary intellectual engagement. The celebrations are intended not merely as a commemoration of the Institute's institutional journey but as an opportunity to take its academic and cultural engagement beyond the traditional academic community and create a wider public space for students, teachers, researchers, artists, readers and citizens.
The year 2026 marks a significant milestone in the history of IIAS. The Indian Institute of Advanced Study Society was registered on October 6, 1964, while the Institute was formally inaugurated by President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on October 20, 1965. Its founding vision was to create an environment for advanced academic research and encourage a meeting of minds capable of extending the horizons of knowledge and wisdom. Six decades later, the Diamond Jubilee programme seeks to reconnect that founding vision with contemporary questions concerning India's history, knowledge traditions and cultural heritage.
The academic programme will begin on October 11 with a special lecture by Prof. Raghvendra Tanwar, Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, on “Jammu Kashmir Ladakh Through the Ages: An Overview of Historicity Issues & Event”. On October 12, Professor Vasant Shinde, globally renowned archaeologist and former Vice-Chancellor of Deccan College, Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, will deliver a lecture on “Evolution of Bharatiya Knowledge System: Archaeological Perspective with Special Reference to Rakhigarhi”. A special lecture on “Vande Mataram” will follow on October 13 by Shri Akhilesh Jha of the Ministry of Rural Development.
Art and cultural heritage will also have a prominent place in the celebrations. An art gallery featuring works by artists who participated in the IIAS Art Camp on “Folk and Rural Imagery in Kangra Miniatures: An Indigenous Indian Art Perspective” will be inaugurated during the programme. The camp was held at IIAS from June 15 to 19, 2026. An exhibition titled “Bhartiya Forms, Expression and Consciousness” by internationally acclaimed artist Nisha Jaiswal will also be inaugurated on October 11 and remain open until October 15. The exhibition will be inaugurated by renowned Kathak danseuse Shovana Narayan.
Alongside the academic and artistic programmes, the IIAS Book Fair will be held from October 11 to 15 between 11 am and 7 pm. Renowned national and international publishers will participate in the fair, which will offer free entry and exemption from the regular ticketing requirement. Participating publishers and distributors include Taylor & Francis India, Cambridge University Press, Manohar Publishers, Orient BlackSwan, Niyogi Books, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Indica Publishers & Distributors, Today & Tomorrow Printers and Publishers, Segment Book Distributors, Bharatiya Sahitya Bhavana and International Book Distributors.
The digitisation of rare manuscripts assumes particular significance in this wider programme as IIAS seeks to combine its rich intellectual heritage with contemporary technology. The digital portal is expected to provide a new avenue for accessing manuscript resources while contributing to their long-term preservation. It also reflects the growing importance of digital tools in ensuring that historically significant collections remain available to future generations of researchers and knowledge seekers.
The IIAS library itself serves as a major research and reference resource in the humanities and social sciences, with more than 1.5 lakh books as well as a substantial rare-book collection. The new portal is therefore positioned within a broader institutional effort to preserve, document and make knowledge resources accessible.
The Diamond Jubilee celebrations will conclude on October 15 in the presence of Himachal Pradesh Governor Kavinder Gupta, who will be the Chief Guest at the closing ceremony. His participation, along with that of Shovana Narayan and scholars, artists, publishers and researchers, is expected to underline the wider cultural and intellectual significance of the event.
From October 11 to 15, Rashtrapati Niwas in Shimla will thus become a meeting ground for books, ideas, art, history and heritage. At the heart of the celebrations will be the IIAS Digitised Rare Manuscripts Library Portal, an initiative that seeks to connect India's valuable manuscript heritage with a new generation of scholars and knowledge seekers through digital access.
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