[MSN] India. Police have recovered 19 of the 110 pages of a rare manuscript - authored by 17th century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and said to be worth Rs.10 million today - that was stolen from a Bihar school library last year.

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Pages of stolen Aurangzeb manuscript found

Patna, June 15: Police have recovered 19 of the 110 pages of a rare
manuscript - authored by 17th century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and said to
be worth Rs.10 million today - that was stolen from a Bihar school library
last year. 

Gaya district superintendent of police Amit Jain said Friday they recovered
some pages, including the cover page, of the manuscript "Gulistan" from a
house in Gaya town, about 100 km from here. 

Three people were arrested while negotiating its sale with a Kolkata-based
antique dealer who had offered them Rs.2 million for the pages.

"Now our concern is to recover the remaining pages of the rarest of rare
manuscript," Jain told IANS over telephone. He hinted that the arrested
criminals had given some clues but refused to elaborate.

"Gulistan", written in Persian, was stolen from the Tekari Raj High School
library in Gaya about six months ago. Police suspected the hand of
international smugglers, dealing in antiques, in the theft.

The crime highlighted the fact that such a rare manuscript had been kept
casually in a school library. Incidentally, Magadh Divisional Commissioner
S.K. Negi had cautioned the school authorities about its safety. 

An expert valued the manuscript to be worth over Rs.10 million in the
international market. 

"Gulistan", which incorporates colourful paintings and embroidery, also has
a picture (sketch) of Aurangzeb - who lived from 1618 to 1707 - printed on
the cover page.

"The rare manuscript was lying in the school for over 100 years," a district
official said. 

There are two theories on how Aurangzeb's "Gulistan" arrived in this school
in Tekari, an erstwhile royal estate. 

The first one says in 18th century the then king of Alwar in Rajasthan had
sold it to his Tekari counterpart for Rs.10,000. It was later donated to the
school that was established by the then queen of Tekari, Rani Rajroop
Kunwar, in 1876 for the education of her son Gopal Sharan, who later became
the king of Tekari.

The second theory says the manuscript could have been presented as a gift to
the Tekari estate during Auurangzeb's visit. It was later donated to the
school by Rani Rajroop Kunwar.

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