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Preserving the intellectual heritage
M. S. VIDYANANDANM. S. VIDYANANDAN
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A two-week training programme, held at the Ayurveda College in the city, focused on the preservation of manuscripts.
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A GROUP of 50 people have taken up the arduous task of preserving knowledge for posterity. Their mission is to decode the 250-odd ancient palm-leaf manuscripts on Ayurveda, which have been preserved in the manuscripts library of the Government Ayurveda College, Thiruvananthapuram. A good number of manuscripts relating to art and architecture, mathematics, astronomy and medicine, which date back to several hundreds of years, are available for reference today. The team entrusted with the preservation and cataloguing of the manuscripts comprises teachers and post-graduate students of the various Government Ayurveda colleges in the State.
During the Seventies, the then principal of the Government Ayurveda College, Thiruvananthapuram, M. P. Sreedharan Nair, decided to publish rare manuscripts on Ayurveda. As a first step, manuscripts were collected from different parts of Kerala. Many local Ayurveda practitioners (nattuvaidyanmar) gave away their corpus of palm-leaf manuscripts on the condition that they be given due credit when the manuscripts were published. Though the project began well, it did not gain momentum due to technical reasons.
Now, the College authorities have decided to go ahead with the project. They conducted a two-week training programme on manuscriptology at the Ayurveda College recently. Technical aspects involved in the preservation of the manuscripts cannot be entrusted to manuscriptologists who do not have adequate knowledge of Ayurveda, says Dr. A. Jameela Beevi, professor and head, Department of Basic Principles.
Mistakes may occur while deciphering the manuscripts and its content, she feels. So, Ayurveda scholars are now being trained in the techniques of manuscriptology and how to interpret them.
Dr. N. P. Unni, former Vice-Chancellor, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, feels "this initiative for learning manuscriptology from the Ayurveda scholars ensures accuracy" in deciphering manuscripts.
Experts from the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) and Manuscript Library (ML) of Kerala University lead the workshop.
The training programme focused on Grantha script, preservation of manuscripts, vattezhuthu, principles of critical editing, digital archiving of manuscripts, script learning and decoding of ancient palm-leaf manuscripts and cataloguing.
Dr. Mariamma Jacob, reader, Department of Swasthavritha, Government Ayurveda College, Thiruvananthapuram says, "My friend, gave me an ancient palm-leaf manuscript. His family practises Ayurveda and possesses a rare collection of manuscripts. Since these were written in the ancient Malayalam script, I found it difficult to read them. I was waiting for an opportunity to learn more about manuscripts."
The manuscripts on Ayurveda had been authored by eminent practitioners and are believed to contain a wealth of information. Says Dr. Mariamma, "I learned about a special yoga (concoction) for mahodaram from the palm-leaf manuscript. This does not find mention in the popular texts. In order to study it in detail, I need to know how to decode it correctly." The Publication Division of the Government Ayurveda College under the Department of Basic Principles takes care of the manuscript collection.
"The corpus of palm-leaf manuscripts, here, deals with topics such as Ayurveda, jyothisha, vyakarana, kavyasilpa, mantravada and even music," says Dr. Prince Alex, tutor, Department of Basic Principles. "Many of these texts, believed to be written between the 17th and 19th centuries, have used scripts such as Granthalipi, Vattezhuthu, Kolezhuthu, Devanagiri and Malayazhma."
The decoding of the scripts would aid in vishachikilsa, a branch of Ayurveda dealing with toxicology, says Dr. Jameela Beevi. "Rare palm-leaf manuscripts of `Vishanarayaneeyam', `Vishachikilsa' and `Yogamritham' have been identified in the collection."
Dr. R. Vasudevan Potti, former dean, Indian Metaphysics, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, says that the decoding and preservation requires to be done with great care and patience and that it would "help millions of ailing people".
Discussions to digitise the manuscripts with technical assistance from the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) are also on, says Dr. Jameela Beevi.
A few years ago, the U.S. Congress disbursed 10 million dollars to the National Institute of Health (NIH) to conduct initial investigations in Ayurveda. This prompted one of the most prominent institutions of Ayurveda in the State to take up research studies on a serious note. Now it is the Government's turn to provide the necessary assistance. "We hope to start a manuscript museum and research centre," adds Dr. Jameela Beevi.
Care of Manuscripts
FOR CENTURIES, India has sustained the oral tradition of transmitting and disseminating knowledge from generation to generation. Interestingly, a written tradition, manuscriptology, has coexisted. The manuscripts in Kerala and other south Indian states were mostly written on palm-leaves. The fan-palm or talipat (Corypha umbraculifera linn) was the most popular in Kerala, especially in coastal Malabar.
The ancient palm-leaf manuscripts unless preserved will deteriorate steadily under tropical climatic conditions. The normal life span of a palm-leaf manuscript is around 500 years. "Through proper care, manuscripts can be preserved for a much longer period. Manuscripts are damaged on exposure to climatic conditions such as heat, humidity and rain, biological factors such as the attack of worms and insects, due to improper storing and careless handling. Pollutants too can affect the manuscripts," says Dr. P. Visalakshy, reader-in-charge, Oriental Research Institute (ORI) and Manuscripts Library (ML), University of Kerala.
A team of experts from the ORI and ML, comprising the manuscript assistants, H. Sadanandan Potti and P. L. Shaji, and project assistant, Krishnakumar, helped in cataloguing the manuscript collection at the Government Ayurveda College, Thiruvananthapuram. The College is the nodal agency of the National Mission for Manuscripts.
Each time a manuscript is discovered, a set of procedures are followed, says Shaji. The first step is to brush the manuscripts carefully. After the dust is removed, a mixture of Citronella oil, Neem oil, charcoal powder, camphor powder and a small quantity of turpentine is applied on each leaf. This protects the leaves from insects and fungi. The letters on the leaves too become clearer.
"The development of technology has aided the preservation of manuscripts," says Dr. Visalakshy, who has authored a book on manuscriptology titled, `The Fundamentals of Manuscriptology'. The modern scientific preservation techniques include air-conditioning, deep-freezing, fumigation, using moisture absorbents, Xeroxing, microfilming and digital archiving. The manuscripts are scanned and the images stored in CD-ROMs. Modern image processing techniques may be effectively used in preserving the information contained in palm-leaf manuscripts.
The ORI and ML, which has over 65,000 works in 30,000 copies mainly of palm-leaf manuscripts, and have already begun the task of making a digital archive.
"Though the manuscripts at the Ayurveda college were not scientifically preserved no damage has occurred so far," says Shaji. It is only now that scientific methods are being used for the preservation of manuscripts, he adds.
The ORI and ML with the help of the National Mission for Manuscripts will conduct the second training programme. And this, says Shaji, would enable the team of participants to decode and preserve the manuscripts all by themselves.
Photo: S. Mahinsha
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