Charyapada is preserved in Nepal’s National Archives, not in the blazing Singha Durbar as falsely claimed
A photo of the fire at Nepal’s Singha Durbar has been shared on Facebook with the claim that the original manuscript of Charyapada, a collection of ancient literary works, was preserved there. But, Dismislab’s verification reveals that the manuscript was not preserved in Singha Durbar. Analysis of multiple authentic sources shows that this ancient manuscript is preserved in Nepal’s National Archives.
After the fire incident, Bangladeshi Actor Rawnak Hasan shared a photo of the Singha Durbar from his verified Facebook profile with a caption reading, “The original manuscript of Charyapada was preserved here !!!!!!!!” From September 11, the same photo with the same claim started circulating from several Facebook profiles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and a page. A photo of Singha Durbar was posted from an Instagram profile with an identical claim: “To push a nation 1000 years back, burning their libraries is enough! Nepal’s Royal Library is burning, Charyapada is burning!”
On the circulated photo, the embedded text read, “We shouldn’t have done this. Singha Durbar was once one of Asia’s grandest palaces and a rich piece of our history. So much of its legacy is now lost.”
A keyword search for verification of these claims led to a Facebook post on the profile of Mamun Rashid, a researcher and teacher at the Bangla department at Jahangirnagar University His post regarding the fire at Singha Durbar and linking the Charyapada manuscript to the incident read, “I have been seeing many posts saying Charyapada is in Nepal’s Singha Durbar, and that the Durbar has been burned. Even if Singha Durbar has been burned, the claim that the manuscript was there is false. The palm-leaf manuscript of Charyapada is not in Nepal’s Royal Durbar. It is preserved in the archives, and it is safe to this day.” He also mentioned that his Nepali friend Taramani Baya confirmed this to him. He has also done some research on Charyapada.
Reverse image search of the keyframes of the photo shows that the photo is from the conflagration at Singha Durbar in Nepal on September 9, when anti-government protesters set fire to the palace.
For verification of the incident, Dismislab contacted “Nepal Fact Check,” a fact-checking organization in Nepal. Its editor Umesh Shrestha said that although several government buildings, including Singha Durbar, were set on fire during the protests, he had not heard of any national library or archives being burned. Umesh also said that some youth organizations guarded the National Archives and prevented protesters from damaging the establishment. Umesh said that Manita Neupane, an officer of the Manuscript Division of Nepal’s National Archives, confirmed that all manuscripts, including Charyapada, are safe.
On September 12 News of Nepal published a report on how Nepalese guarded the archives at the time. The report said that although several government establishments were set on fire, there was no incident of fire at the National Archives. When Gen-Z protesters tried to set fire there, activists, three security agencies, the Department of Archaeology, and former staff of the archives together prevented it. A day earlier on September 11, a report published by Ukaalo stated that on September 9, there had been three attacks on the Department of Archaeology. The first time, the lock was broken. The second time, seven or eight people came to attack, but they were persuaded to leave. Before the third attack, barricades were set up and posters were put up to dissuade the angry crowd.
Therefore, the claim spread on social media that the original manuscript of Charyapada was preserved in Singha Durbar in Nepal is baseless.
It is to be noted that Charyapada is the oldest known poetry and literary work in the Bangla language. In 1907, Haraprasad Shastri first discovered a manuscript of Charyapada from the library of the royal palace in Nepal.
