Assam’s classical literary tradition has gained national visibility at Granth Kutir, the manuscript and book repository inaugurated at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 23, 2026. The archive includes rare Assamese manuscripts and texts alongside other classical Indian languages.
The archive was inaugurated by the President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu, and features rare manuscripts and books from 11 Indian languages that have been accorded classical status, including Assamese.
The inclusion of Assamese manuscripts comes a little over a year after the Government of India conferred classical language status on Assamese on October 3, 2024. Granth Kutir houses nearly 2,300 books and around 50 manuscripts representing Tamil, Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia, Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali. Several of these manuscripts are handwritten on traditional materials such as palm leaves, bark, cloth and handmade paper.
The initiative, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), aims to preserve, document, and raise awareness of India’s diverse, ancient knowledge systems.
