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North Bengal State Library is
a pride of Cooch Behar. This Library has so many valuable manuscripts and
Classic "Punthis" written on hand made papers and palm leaf. There are so many rare
books, old journals Indian and Foreign rare documents, reports. The treasure is
a cultural heritage of Cooch Behar Kingdom. The library has a long history of
125 years. During the minority of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan, Colonel Houghten
came to Cooch Behr to act as Commissioner (1864-73). Colonel Houghten
established State Library of Cooch Behar in the year 1870 by purchasing a stock
of books at an auction sale of M/S.Rozario and Co., in London. In a room of
Nilkuthi the library was started. Later it was handed over to the Maharaja
Nripendra Narayan who removed the library to Lansdown Hall in the year 1895.
Worthwhile to note that in the year 1882 the library was opened for public use.
The
library grew richer and larger and became the treasure-island under the direct
patronage of Maharaja of Cooch Behar who sanctioned Rs.2,000 as annual
grant for the purchase of books. Different punthis, manuscripts and rare
documents of Raj-Darawabar or royal-court were transferred to this library for
public
benefit. J.W.Troten in his book India under Victoria speaks of this
library, “the little State of Cooch Behar on Assam border could be act of
a library richer than any to be found in Bengal out side Calcutta”.
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The
Library became the storehouse of important documents, reports, journals and rare
manuscripts. Most of rare books and documents are century’s old. It became a
treasure of the cultural heritage of Cooch Behar Kingdom.
Just
on the eve of merger of Cooch Behr State with the Indian Union, the Library was
run by five employees including a Librarian of gazetted rank. The library then
was under the Director Control of Minister In-charge of State Council. After the
merger with the Union Govt., the library shifted under the control of the District
Magistrate and the Government sanctioned only one Librarian and a peon [vide order
no.-985-Edm(d)].
In
a joint meeting with the prominent citizens of the Cooch Behar town on
13-NOV-1967
in the chamber of the Deputy Commissioner (Cooch Behar) it was unanimously resolved to
amalgamate the State Library with the District Library, Cooch Behr. The District
Library of Cooch Behar was established in the year 1957 under the sponsored
Library scheme. According to the above resolution in the year 1968, the then
Deputy Commissioner, Sri Bhaskar Ghosh, I.A.S., on the plea of saving the library
sent a proposal of amalgamation with the District Library to the D.P.I. , West
Bengal.
On
the basis of his proposal government accepted the merger and renamed the Library as
“North Bengal State Library” [vide G.O.No.,114-Edn(SE)].
At
the time of merger on 1-APR-1969, volume of books of the erstwhile State Library
and erstwhile Dist. Library are as follows : -
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State
Library :~ |
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English
Books
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16,000
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Urdu
Books
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- |
180
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Arabic
Books
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- |
135 |
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Persian
Books
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- |
205
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Manuscripts
(Bengali,Assamees,Sanskrit
Languages) |
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228
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descriptive
Catalogue of Bengali Manuscripts |
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Century’s
old bound magazine
Indian
and foreign.
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1,200
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Three
dimensional box
Picture
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50
boxes |
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Bengali
books
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- |
4000
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District
Library :~
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English and Bengali
books |
- |
12,000
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The
Library’s present collections. : 70,000
books
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