Bhopal's 'Sapre Museum' - Enriched by the Collection of Periodicals

Man's thirst for knowledge always makes him eager to learn and know new things. The history of the gradual development of all subjects such as feelings, thoughts, language, science, religion, and literature compiled in books, newspapers, magazines, documents, and texts is so vast, immense, and rich that it not only elevates man's intellectual level but also proves helpful in quenching his thirst for knowledge by providing him with information on various subjects, constantly developing his repository of knowledge, and refining and purifying his inner tendencies. The repository of immense knowledge stored in magazines and books has its own distinct importance and glory, even though many other means of acquiring knowledge may be available today. Everything is insignificant in front of books and their study!! Therefore, the importance and utility of books and their collection as a permanent center of knowledge enhancement and enlightenment are imperishable. Nalanda, Takshashila, Vikramshila are eternal examples of the collection of intellectual heritage since ancient times. Even at present, there are many such national book museums in our country where an extensive series of ancient texts, books, and periodicals have been collected. But the Sapre Museum in Bhopal is such a unique and unparalleled institution for the collection and preservation of our country's national intellectual heritage, where rare materials of newspapers, magazines, reference books, manuscripts, handwritten documents, and other documents have been collected in abundance.

The Sapre Museum in Bhopal was originally established by Shri Vijayadutt Shridhar in 1984. Shridhar, a journalist and a scholar of journalism, started his journalism career with "Desh Bandhu" published from Bhopal. After a long tenure of 23 years as the editor of Nav Bharat and retiring as the research director of Makhanlal Chaturvedi University, he had to travel to many places to gather material for the book "History of Journalism in Madhya Pradesh" for the Madhya Pradesh Granth Academy in 1982-83. It was then that he realized that many scholarly families had a vast and rare collection of newspapers, magazines, books, documents, and texts, and this national intellectual heritage, preserved in decaying pages, could be lost if not preserved. Then, Vyakaranacharya Kamta Prasad Guru's son, Pt. Rameshwar Prasad Guru, inspired him that this material of ancestors and great men from all over the country needs to be collected, compiled, and preserved under one roof so that the repository of knowledge for future generations can be enhanced. When efforts began in this regard, he found a collection of old books filling two rooms at the house of the 'cycle-wala mayor'. But before handing over his collection, Guru ji asked Shridhar if he had a disease of being popular. Then his first condition was that the work had to be done rigorously because libraries are ruined for two reasons: one, some intelligent people tear out pages of work from books without thinking that someone else might also need the material written on those pages. And second, some people take books from libraries and do not return them. Also, due to the current times, the habit of reading books or studiousness is also decreasing among people. Therefore, while handing over the collection, Guru ji, instructing him to take care of it, also said that he had no right over his literary collection, nor would it become Shridhar's just by handing it over to him; rather, it is a trust of the generations yet to be born. Inspired in this way, Shridhar ji started the "Madhavrao Sapre Museum" on June 19, 1984, from the old bastion of the historic Kamalapati Palace in Bhopal. In the initial phase, starting with just 350 issues of 73 periodicals, the collection of material became so large within 4 years that the room in the bastion became too small. Therefore, to organize the collection, it was transferred to the Narendra Dev Library in 1988, and finally, the museum was transferred to its own building on June 19, 1996.

Today, many rare newspapers, magazines, their inaugural issues, complete files of many historical magazines, and reference material on various disciplines of knowledge including the history of the freedom struggle, culture, literature, women's studies, dictionaries, and gazetteers have been collected and compiled here. More than 5 crore pages of material important for research reference have also been preserved. The preserved material includes reference material in Hindi, Urdu, English, Marathi, Gujarati, and Sanskrit languages in abundance. It is the result of the personal efforts and passion of Shri Shridhar ji, honored with the Padma Shri, that the Sapre Museum has also started publishing the material on journalism available here in book form. The "Bharatiya Patrakarita Kosh" has been published in two volumes. The first volume records the chronicle of the period of Indian journalism from 1780 to 1900, and the second volume from 1901 to 1947. Since all languages have contributed to journalism, the chronological history of journalism in all languages like Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, and Bengali has also been preserved in its original form. In which not only the certified accounts of newspapers and magazines of all languages are recorded, but the entire geography of India up to 1947 has also been included. Besides India's freedom struggle and its heroes, social reform and its heroes, there is also diversity here on subjects like Nehru, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Lohia, and Jayaprakash Narayan.

In addition to the rare material related to Indian journalism, old newspapers from India and abroad are also preserved in many rooms here. Newspapers from the beginning of Indian publication up to the 19th century are available here. The country's first newspaper published from Calcutta, the 21 Gazette, Bombay Carrier, Bengal Harkaru, Modern Review, Statesman, Bihar Herald, Amrit Bazar Patrika, Illustrated Weekly, Dharmayug, Saptahik Hindustan, Dinmaan, Ravivar, Madhuri, and many such titled magazines are also available in hundreds. Experiencing the thrill of seeing history firsthand in the writings of these old newspapers and magazines collected here, it can be said that this museum is not only a pilgrimage of knowledge for journalism but also a rare treasure of knowledge of various disciplines is preserved here.

In this museum, 784 manuscripts, 500 years old, have also been preserved, of which 378 are handwritten. The manuscripts from 1509 to 1925 are particularly noteworthy, in which handwritten manuscripts of Goswami Tulsidas's Shri Ram Gitavali, Shri Ram Vivah Mangal, Prangan Gita, and Shiv Uma Shubh Vivah Mangal are also available. Among the modern Hindi writers, handwritten manuscripts of Makhanlal Chaturvedi, Kamta Prasad Guru, Rameshwar Prasad Guru, Bhawani Prasad Mishra, Amritlal Bigad, Dushyant Kumar, Govind Mishra, Rameshchandra Shah, Anupam Mishra, and Devi Dayal Chaturvedi Mast are also collected here. Besides this, handwritten letters of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Banarsidas Chaturvedi, Vrindavanlal Verma, Seth Govind Das, Sumitranandan Pant, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Maithilisharan Gupt, Bhawaniprasad Mishra, and Nand Dulare Bajpai are also preserved here. In 1930, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's first poetry collection named "Mukul" was published, which she dedicated to Rameshwar Prasad Guru ji and wrote on its cover page with her own hand, "To dear Gullu Bhaiya" from "Billo Rani." This book, preserved here, is such a wonderful document in itself that it reveals that Subhadra ji was lovingly called "Billo Rani" and Rameshwar Guru was called "Gullu."

More than 1000 scholarly families have contributed to enriching the knowledge repository of the Sapre Museum, in which Pt. Madhavrao Sapre and Dr. Ashok Sapre from Pune, Pt. Kamta Prasad Guru and Rameshwar Guru from Jabalpur, Makhanlal Chaturvedi's younger brother Brij Bhushan Chaturvedi from Khandwa, Jagdish Kumar Chaturvedi from Delhi, Narayan Dutt from Bengaluru, Shriranjan Surya Dev from Patna, and a 100-year-old Chiranjiv Library from Agra have handed over their heritage. The way the collection of periodicals and books has been preserved here in a systematic manner is wonderful in itself. Shridhar ji says that often in people's homes, there are many books and magazines related to history, literature, culture, and religion, besides other subjects. But after a certain period of time, or rather, after one generation, the next generation does not know the value of that collection of books, and they either sell them as scrap or they are destroyed due to lack of proper maintenance. Therefore, my prayer is that we recognize the tradition and power of books and their study because it is not only the written authenticity of words but also a heritage that is extremely necessary to be preserved for future generations. It would be better to give such books to a library instead of destroying them so that knowledge continues to grow.

Just as the flow of infinite rivers merges into the ocean and fills it every day, in the same way, the collection of priceless material related to the country's journalism, and the important national intellectual heritage like history, literature, and culture is enriching the development journey of this museum so that, by taking inspiration and understanding from here for research related to the burning problems of the country, not only can the tradition of Hindi journalism be taken forward, but the rare heritage of literature, history, and tradition can also be preserved for the coming generations. The famous journalist and editor of Navbharat Times, Rajendra Mathur, seeing the heritage of this museum's collection, had truly written about it about 35 years ago that - "When the seed is sprouting and raising so much hope, the achievement will surely be very great when it becomes a tree."