The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Siddha manuscripts chosen for digitisation project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Siddha manuscripts chosen for digitisation project

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, SEPT. 13. Six thousand and five hundred rare Siddha manuscripts have been chosen for a pilot project of digitisation.

Illustrated manuscripts of Orissa (3,500), Vaishnava manuscripts of the Majuli Islands of Assam (4,000), Kashmiri manuscripts (6,000) and Kudiyattam manuscripts of Kerala (1,000) have also been chosen for the project, which will be completed by the year-end, Anurag Arora, coordinator (Digitisation) of the National Mission for Manuscripts, under the control of the Union Culture Ministry, said today.

"Though the country has an estimated five million manuscripts, the purpose of this project is to focus initially on those manuscripts which are on the verge of extinction; conserve and preserve them for posterity," he told reporters, after participating in the inauguration of a two-day workshop at Madras University here.

Database planned

The governing principle of the work was not to cause any damage to the manuscripts. No physical contact should be maintained with the manuscripts. High-resolution digital cameras and sophisticated scanners would be employed. For each manuscript, an identification number would be assigned. A database of the manuscripts, containing details of authors and subjects, would be created. The project was being implemented with the help of 33 resource centres.

R.K. Rana, assistant director of the mission, said about Rs. 2 crores had been set apart for the project. Tamil Nadu was one of the States, which had a large number of rare manuscripts. It had over 2.5 lakh manuscripts including 75,000 in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Chennai, and 60,000 in the Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur.

Earlier, presiding over the inauguration of the workshop, S. P. Thyagarajan, Vice-Chancellor of Madras University, said all educational institutions should take part in the preservation programme.

E. Sundaramoorthy, Tamil University Vice-Chancellor, said those who were keeping manuscripts for their use should make them available for the programme.

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