Reference Library of Books, Manuscripts and Visuals

Kala Nidhi is a repository of research and reference material in Humanities and the Arts. It has built a massive collection of source material, encapsulating the entire spectrum of textual, visual and auditory data. Within the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts(IGNCA), Kala Nidhi provides information support service for textual research undertaken by Kala Kosha; contextual research on life-style studies done by Janapada Sampada and dissemination of resultant outputs through Kala Darshana and Cultural Informatics Laboratory. Reference Library in Kala Nidhi has a rich collection of source material in Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, Aesthetics, Crafts, Ethnology, History, Linguistics, Literary studies, Religion and Sociology. The collection consists of Printed books (1, 75,000 including 3000 rare books from the 18th and 19th Century), Journals, Slides, Microfilms, Microfiche, Manuscripts, Photographs and Audio- Video materials. The library has, through the process of acquisition and donations, personal collections of eminent scholars like Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, Acharya Dr. Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy and others. An area collection on South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia and Eurasia is also available at the library.

The Cultural Archives: Kala Nidhi’s Cultural Archives has collected, preserved, classified and disseminated several rare, original and secondary material on the Arts and Culture. The acquisitions in Cultural Archives are made in the categories of Literature(Sahitya), Architecture(Vastu), Sculpture(Shilpa), Painting(Chaya pata), Music(Sangita), Dance(Natya). Some rare collections of ethnography and audio visual documentation of old masters and rare art forms are also housed in the Cultural Archives. Amongst others, these include audio cassettes of R.C. Rangra, Rabindranath Tagore’s recordings, Raja Deena Dayal’s original photographs and plates, Sambhu Saha, Sunil Janah and Henri Cartier Bresson’s photographs, Lance Dane’s collection of sculptures, D.R.D. Wadia collection of photographs, Elizabeth and Elizabeth Sass Brunner’s paintings, rare maps of R.P. Mishra and musical instruments, puppets and masks from various parts of India and the world. The ABIA Project: Kala Nidhi is associated with a project ABIA South and Southeast Asian Art & Archaeology Index. The purpose is to create an annotated bibliographic data base (the ABIA Index) for publishers, covering the subjects, – Pre and proto history, Historical archaeology, Ancient and modern art history, Material culture, Epigraphy and Numismatics. The database is freely accessible on line at http://www.abia.net. Three volumes have been published, containing more than 4000 annotated and key word- indexed references.

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Data base Development and Computerisation: Kala Nidhi has developed a Catalogue database of all its holdings. It is available on the web as on line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). Documentation Unit: Kala Nidhi’s documentation unit has been revived. The primary objective of the unit is to collect and preserve all the material pertaining to the events or academic programmes organized by the IGNCA and to build up a reliable institutional memory. The Unit also prepares a brief write-up on various programmes and events organized by the division. It also provides content for updating the IGNCA website and publication of a bi-monthly news bulletin.Membership in the Library: Registered members of the Kala Nidhi Library can access all the resources. Membership details are as follows