Gita and Natyashastra in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register

In a step towards marking India’s cultural legacy, the Bhavagad Gita and Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra have been included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, prompting a word of praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Taking to X, PM Modi called the inclusion of the Bhagavad Gita and Natyashastra a “global recognition of our timeless wisdom and rich culture" and a proud moment for every Indian. He said the Hindu scriptures had nurtured civilisation and consciousness for centuries.

UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ Register is an initiative to preserve and protect the world’s documentary heritage and make it permanently accessible without any hindrance. The programme was launched in 1992 to guard against collective amnesia and preserve valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world.

The Bhagavad Gita, containing 700 verses in 18 chapters, is a central Hindu scripture in the epic Mahabharata. It is a synthesis of various ancient Indian religious thought movements like Vedic, Buddhist, Jain and Carvaka, and emphasises the importance of duty, knowledge and devotion. The Bhagavad Gita has been read for centuries across the world and translated into several languages.

While Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra is a collection of Sanskrit poetic verses describing performance arts. It embodies a comprehensive set of rules that define natya (drama), abhinaya (performance), rasa (aesthetic experience), bhava (emotion), sangita (music), among others. It is notable as an ancient encyclopaedic treatise on the arts, inspiring Indian theatre, poetics, aesthetics, dance and music. These two scriptures have long stood as cornerstones of India’s cultural and intellectual heritage.

With the inclusion of these scriptures, there are 14 Indian inscriptions in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. Other Indian inscriptions include the Rigveda manuscripts, the Gilgit Manuscripts, the IAS Tamil Medical Manuscript Collection, the Mughal Imperial Records, and the manuscripts of Ramcharitmanas.

UNESCO said that a total of 74 new entries were made in their Memory of the World Register, bringing the total number of inscribed collections to 570.