The Asiatic Society of Mumbai which is over 200 years old has appointed its first woman President Vispi Balaporia.
Balaporia (77) was the former Vice Principal of Jai Hind College and former Head of Department of English at Mumbai University.
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The Asiatic Society of Mumbai houses thousands of rare and valuable books along with some rare artefacts and manuscripts in Persian, Sanskrit and Prakrit. On receiving the award on Saturday, August 31, Balaporia said that the digitisation of the content has increased people's access to the library and it will continue to focus on preserving rare books and artefacts along with the restoration of large collection of maps.
Notably, Balaporia is the daughter of Shavax Lal who was the former honorary secretary of the Asiatic Society and even served as the secretary to India's first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad. One of the rare books that Asiatic Society holds is one of the only 2 copies of Dante's Divine Comedy in the world and the manuscript of Firdausi's Shahnama which is the longest epic poem describing the Persian Empire which was written in 977–1010 CE among others.
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