Foreword The Vrndavana Research Institute (VRI) Vrndavana (Mathura-UP) was founded in 1960 with the noble objective to conserve, preserve and promote Indian heritage and cultural property with special emphasis on the Braja culture and its contribution to the Indian tradition. During the last three decades and over VRI has been engaging itself in the pursuit of these noble aims and to realize them has been holding workshops and seminars in addition to organizing lectures, exhibitions, culture programmed as also conservation and publication work relating to manuscripts of the organization and also from outside.

It has been the Endeavour of VRI to carry message of culture and make people aware and better informed about methods of conserving culture property and give longer life to the articles of heritage and culture. it is in this direction that a National Seminar was organized from 29 Nov. to 01 Dec. 2003 at VRI on the subject. "Recent Trends in Conservation of Manuscripts." The Seminar was attended by about thirty scholars and experts of the discipline of conservation from allover the country including centers like Delhi, Lucknow Kolkata, Chennai, Thanjavur and Bangalore, Some twenty-five papers were received from scholars and experts of the National Re- search Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC) Lucknow, the National Archives of India (NAI) New Delhi, the Government Museum, Chennai, the Saraswati Mahal Library, Thanjavur and others.

Sri OP Agrawal, the grand old man in the field of conservation of cultural property, gave keynote address which was both comprehensive and erudite and it set the pace for deliberations in the Seminar. The papers and the discussions covered a wide range of latest researches, trends and techniques and made participants informed about most modern practices of conservation of manuscripts combining with the traditional knowledge and methods. It was felt that publication of the papers would be useful as a record and also as a compendium to guide our students and people. The publication has been brought out with this end in view and it is hoped that it will serve as a reference book to students, conservators and others interested in conservation of cultural property, especially manuscripts.

**Contents and Sample Pages**