From Mughal era farmans to digital chips: DU library set for new chapter

The Delhi University’s (DU) Central Library, the intellectual heart of the campus since 1922, is preparing to turn a new page. Once a modest hall with just 700 seats, the library is undergoing a major expansion that will push its seating capacity to nearly 3,400.

- Aheli Das

But the transformation is more than bricks and mortar. Alongside new wings and modern technology, the library continues to safeguard a legacy woven into the university's own history—I8thand 19th-century manuscripts, books in multiple languages, and the rarest of gems: three original farmans issued by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

When DU was founded in 1922, its library had a relatively modest beginning - it started with just 1,380 gifted books and 86 periodicals, operating out of temporary quarters. Between 1933 and 1958, it occupied a ballroom in the Vice Regal Lodge, before finally moving into the current Central Library building ~ located between the university’s Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Law.

“Between 1933-1958, the library was located in the convention centre in the Vice Regal Lodge, which was once a ballroom. Following that, the library finally shifted to the Central Library building in 1958,” said Rajesh Singh, university librarian.

From a modest start with under 1,500 books, today, its shelves carry more than 650,000 books.

Stack after stack of books, the library feels like a repository of memories, knowledge and nostalgia, said Rajesh Singh, university librarian.