The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Documenting the nation's heritage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Documenting the nation's heritage

"THOSE WHO get angry too easily should not read this... " So instructs the preface of a manuscript that was found recently at an old `Ilam' at Edappally, near Ernakulam. The reason? The manuscript is all about `Marma Sasthram.'

This work on the `Marmams' in the human body is among the 27,000 manuscripts that have been found by personnel of the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala, from various parts of the State. Another manuscript found in a similar fashion, from a `Mana' at Shornur, contained details about various types of poisons.

The manuscripts are being located and archived as part of an ongoing, nation-wide project to identify and preserve such extant scripts in the country. This project of the National Manuscripts Mission also aims at creating a national database of these manuscripts. The library is among the 23 nodal agencies in the country participating in the project.

So far the library's researchers have covered nine districts in the State, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Palakkad and Kasaragod. "We came across hundreds of manuscripts in old `Illams', `Manas' and temples. Often, the owners of these manuscripts had no idea what they were all about. Moreover, we held detailed inspections at 18 institutions across the State to identify rare manuscripts. We also conducted awareness programmes stressing the need to identify and preserve manuscripts. This alone gave us 72 bundles of manuscripts," the library director, P. Visalakshy, said.

The library's own collection of manuscripts — over 65,000 — is said to be the largest in South India and the second largest in the country. There are manuscripts in Sanskrit, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Kannada, Gujarathi and Bengali. The library also houses manuscripts from Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Nepal.

* * *

THE PREVAILING crises in the education sector notwithstanding, higher education in Kerala seems to be looking up. If an assessment made recently by the University Grants Commission (UGC) is any indication, the colleges in Kerala have been doing much better than at least those in West Bengal.

This fact just can't be ignored on account of the fact that there is a tendency in Kerala to compare the State with West Bengal, especially in terms of parameters of development.

The UGC has identified six colleges in Kerala as `College with Potential for Excellence' (CPE), whereas it is just one college from West Bengal that has been selected to receive this honour.

These six colleges have been selected from among 194 with UGC affiliation in Kerala. The lone institution in West Bengal was selected from among 369 colleges.

In the initial screening, 13 colleges had been selected from Bengal, but all except one were eliminated in the subsequent round. The six colleges from Kerala had maintained their credentials from stage one to the final round; a matter of pride for all concerned.

Only 47 colleges from over 5,000 in the country have been selected to be conferred with the status of CPE and it is no mean achievement that six of them are in Kerala. The University College and Mar Ivanios College in Thiruvananthapuram, SB College, Changanacherry, CMS College, Kottayam, SH College, Thevara and the Farokh College, Kozhikode, are the institutions that have brought laurels to Kerala.

Several factors were considered by the UGC in the selection process. Academic excellence, expertise of teachers, infrastructure in the academic departments, major projects, patents obtained, research works with national and international potential and publications in major journals, were among the criteria for selection.

All these six colleges will be honoured at a function to be held at the Senate Hall here on October 20.

J. Ajith Kumar

By G. Mahadevan and J. Ajith Kumar

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section

Water shortage acute in M.G. Road area

Water belongs to people, says French expert

DGP told to take action against SI for duty lapse

Youth held on charge of cheating

Five killed in accidents

`Peoplespeak'

Hoteliers' pat for Mayor

RJD leader dead

Around the City

IN Thiruvananthapuram Today

Documenting the nation's heritage