Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Swati manuscripts found

National Manuscript Mission retrieves palm leaf scripts from Mavelikara

RICH FIND: The manuscripts were written in Sanskrit using Malayalam script.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the recent discovery of a couple of palm leaf manuscripts written by Swati Tirunal, the renowned composer-king of erstwhile Travancore, the number of manuscripts unearthed by teams of the National Manuscript Mission (NMM) from the State has gone up to 69,500.

The latest discoveries are the `Syanandurapuri Varnana Prabandham' and the `Padmanabha Dasakam' manuscripts written in Sanskrit using the Malayalam script. They were found among scores of other manuscripts kept at the Mavelikara palace.

P. Visalakshy, the head of the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, the University of Kerala, and the person in charge on the NMM surveys in seven districts in the State said here that her team received information a couple of weeks ago that manuscripts penned by Swati Tirunal may be found at the Mavelikara palace.

`Well preserved'

"We found the manuscripts very well preserved. The `Syanandurapuri... ,' written in 1839, is a description of the origins of Thiruvananthapuram.

"The same document written in the Gantha script is available at our library. This is for the first time that the document written in Malayalam script has been found," she explained.

The NMM team who went to Mavelikara also found the `Padmanabha Dasakam.'

According to Dr. Visalakshy, the second manuscript contains `slokas' in praise of `Padmanabhaswamy.'

In the case of this document too this is for the first time that the `Dasakam' written in Malayalam script has been found. This document, however, is not dated.

At present, about half of the `Syanandurapuri... ' is with the library in Thiruvananthapuram for processing. Once a manuscript is identified, the NMM team records the find in the `MANUSDATA' format; complete with the name of the author, the name of the document, commentary if any, the commentator, the data of the document, the material on which it is written and so on. The data is processed using the `Namami' software provided by the NMM and then stored. This way, the NMM will have all relevant details of a manuscript wherever it is in the country.

The actual manuscript will, however, be given back to the owner of the place from where it was found.

Officials at the library are responsible for NMM surveys in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Kollam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta and Alappuzha.

G. Mahadevan

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