Pbi varsity bans Mahan Kosh over errors, to scrap all copies

Ravneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 20

The Punjabi University will now have to dispose of the distorted copies of Mahan Kosh. A committee formed on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today suggested the university must scrap all volumes of the encyclopedia of Sikh literature produced in Punjabi, Hindi and English over distortions and mistakes.

University officials said they had decided to permanently ban all versions of the text. They are yet to decide on retrieving the sold copies.

The university will now rope in scholars who will identify and mark all distortions in the text. The university will experiment on the Punjabi version, which will be sent for printing in three months.

The university will also fix responsibility for the glaring mistakes as per percentage of mistakes. The negligence and responsibility will be adjudged in about one and a half months by when the first draft will be produced.

The Mahan Kosh, considered to be the greatest work in Punjabi literature, is in four volumes. It was written by Bhai Kahan Singh Nabha and first published in 1927. The university’s publication bureau and the department of development of Punjabi language reprinted the copies of Mahan Kosh after which a number of errors were identified by scholars in 2016.

The matter reached the Punjab and Haryana High court after which the court banned its sale.

Dr Harpal Singh Pannu said they university would have to destroy all copies. “We suggested that the university replenish and use the material instead of burning the books, as suggested by some members of the committee. Correction is not possible in the produced material.”

Registrar Manjit Singh Nijjar said they would rope in scholars to identify the mistakes. “We want to complete the task as soon as possible. We will decide on the process of disposing of the material later.”

A member of the committee pointed out that the university had produced copies in thousands. “A lot of investment, all provided by the state government, went in the production has gone waste. The university had hired employees to work on it who were later hired permanently. They have become a burden on the university as the work produced will have to be scrapped,” he said.