The Chief Minister's Office of Chhattisgarh announced on Monday, 1 June 2026 that Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai visited village Badekanera, Kondagaon district, where he examined eight rare manuscripts estimated to be nearly 150 years old — texts that have remained in private family custody across generations.

Context

During the visit, CM Sai personally reviewed the manuscripts and spoke with village resident Ramuram Yadav about their history, preservation, and significance. Community members — Hardu Kashyap, Parameshwar Manikpuri, Trilokhan Manikpuri, Pursoti Ram Maurya, and Chamru Nag — told the Chief Minister that these texts have been safeguarded within their families since the time of their grandparents and great-grandparents.

The manuscripts include panji (genealogical records), puran (ancient scriptures), panchang (almanacs), and other classical texts. In his address, CM Sai praised the families, saying, 'Preserving one's roots and history is the greatest gift for future generations.'

Policy Backdrop

The discovery and review of these manuscripts took place under the Gyan Bharatam Abhiyan, a state-level campaign in Chhattisgarh focused on locating, documenting, and protecting ancient manuscripts and traditional knowledge texts held privately by communities. The campaign reflects a broader effort to surface heritage materials that have never entered formal archival systems.

At the national level, India's National Mission for Manuscripts, launched in 2003, has provided a policy framework for surveying, conserving, and digitising handwritten texts across states. Chhattisgarh's state-level drive builds on this lineage, directing attention toward rural and tribal districts where scribal traditions have persisted outside institutional knowledge.

The visit was conducted under the #SushasanTihar2026 (Good Governance Festival 2026) banner — a periodic outreach initiative that combines public administration engagement with cultural documentation in villages.

Stakeholders and Impact

Kondagaon district, situated in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh, is home to a dense concentration of tribal communities and has long been associated with preserved indigenous cultural artefacts. The eight manuscripts surfaced in Badekanera represent the kind of privately held heritage that formal conservation drives rarely reach without direct community engagement.

For the families involved, the Chief Minister's visit represents formal state recognition of their role as custodians of living heritage. Heritage researchers and archivists stand to benefit if the state follows through with cataloguing or digitisation of the finds.

What's Next

The state government has not yet announced specific steps for the conservation or digitisation of the Kondagaon manuscripts, but the Gyan Bharatam Abhiyan framework opens pathways for cataloguing grants, professional conservation support, or eventual transfer to district or state archives. If the government moves to formally document these texts, the Badekanera collection could serve as a model for similar community-held repositories across Chhattisgarh's tribal belt — and a test case for how state heritage policy translates from announcement to archival action.