The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library is a public library located in Patna, the capital of the Indian state of Bihar. It is one of the most important repositories of Persian and Arabic manuscripts in the Indian subcontinent and is recognised as an institution of national importance by an Act of the Parliament of India. The library is situated on Ashok Rajpath, near the banks of the Ganges, and falls under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
| Name | Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library |
|---|---|
| Type | Public library; institution of national importance |
| Location | Ashok Rajpath, Patna, Bihar, India |
| Founder | Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh Khan |
| Opened to public | 1891 |
| Specialisation | Persian, Arabic and Urdu manuscripts; Indo-Islamic studies |
| Administered by | Ministry of Culture, Government of India |
The library originated in the personal manuscript collection of Maulvi Mohammad Bakhsh, a lawyer of Chapra, who bequeathed his books to his son, Khuda Bakhsh Khan. Khuda Bakhsh, also a lawyer who later served in administrative roles in the princely state of Hyderabad, expanded the collection significantly, employing agents to acquire rare manuscripts from across West Asia, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent.
Khuda Bakhsh Khan formally opened the library to the public on 5 October 1891, donating his collection along with a building constructed for the purpose. At its inauguration, the institution was attended by Sir Charles Alfred Elliott, the then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. After the founder's death in 1908, the library was managed by a board of trustees.
To safeguard and develop the institution, the Government of India enacted the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library Act, 1969, declaring it an institution of national importance and providing for its administration through a board chaired by the Governor of Bihar.
The library is best known for its rare manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Urdu, along with holdings in Turkish, Pashto and several Indian languages. Its collection includes:
Beyond preservation and reference services, the library undertakes academic publication, including catalogues of its manuscripts, scholarly monographs and the Khuda Bakhsh Library Journal. It organises lectures, seminars and exhibitions, and runs conservation and digitisation programmes for its rare holdings.
The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library is regarded as a major centre for research in oriental studies and is frequently cited alongside other premier collections of Islamicate manuscripts in South Asia. Its holdings are an important resource for historians of the Mughal Empire, the Deccan sultanates and the wider Persianate world, and for scholars of Arabic and Persian literature.