Chennai :

The long wait to read rare palm leaves and paper manuscripts at the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Centre will soon be over. In a rare initiative, the state archaeology department on Tuesday launched e-publishing of manuscripts, beginning with Saptarishi Nadi, an astrology-based palm leaf manuscript in its portal, www.tnarch.gov.in

The 145-year-old treasure house was a result of laborious efforts of British linguists and historians, Col Colin Mackenzie, C P Brown, Rev T Foulkes and Prof Pickford and later conserved by the state. The priceless manuscripts give deep insight into literature, astronomy, siddha, Ayurveda, unani, veda, agama, architecture and fine arts, written in Sanskrit, South Indian and Oriental languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Urdu, Persian, Sinhalese, and Burmese and Kaifiyats (historical accounts) of various periods. The bundles of manuscripts stocked in the library have been great resource material for scholars pursing research on ancient works.

While the manuscripts are 300 to 400 years old, many are in a state of decay. “We have taken 23 lakh pages of these manuscripts for digitization and completed 10% of the work so far. In another 18 months, the entire process will come to an end benefitting global researchers,” Archeology commissioner D Karthikeyan told TOI. The library has some rare manuscripts of classical literature, Tholkappiyam, a work on Tamil grammar, with Nachinarkiniyar commentary, Nakkeerar’s Tirumurukatrupadai, the Sangam literature in praise of Lord Subramaniya and the two-century-old Kari-Naal, a smallest palm-leaf manuscript about inauspicious days. “It’s a treasure house that needs to be preserved and disseminated. Digitization is a welcome move,” said Roja Muthiah Research Library director G Sundar. The library has chipped in with expertise to digitize the leaves with clarity.

“The manuscripts are digitized 300 to 600 dpi or pixel resolution and converted to pdf or tiff format. Before the manuscripts are taken up for scanning, the old leaves are cleaned with brush followed by a rectified spirit,” Library curator S Vasanthi said. The 5% of solution of citronella oil or lemon grass oil in rectified spirit is applied and allowed to dry. This not only gives flexibility to the leaves, but also provides insecticidal and fungicidal property to the palm-leaf manuscripts.

The manuscripts are digitized 300 to 600 dpi or pixel resolution and converted to portable document format or tiff format.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Julie Mariappan, TNN / January 14th, 2014