Thiruvananthapuram, April 19 (PTI): In a major archival discovery, a rare palmleaf manuscript written by the 19th century Travancore Maharaja and music legend Swathi Tirunal has been traced by researchers.

The text, 'Sandupuruvarnanam,' describing the unique feature of erstwhile royal state of Travancore, was recently traced by manuscript researchers at Manoormadam Kottaram in Mavelikkara in Alappuzha district.

Out of the 57 palm leaves of this text penned by Swathi Thirunal in Malayalam script, 31 have been found among a bundle of manuscripts in a box at Manoormadam, Assistant Co-ordinator of Manuscripts Post-survey Programme, P L Shaji told PTI.

From the inscriptions on the text, it could be learnt that they were written in AD 1839, he said.

The survey was undertaken under the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) sponsored by Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library of Kerala University.

Efforts were also on to find original texts of the compositions of Swathi Tirunal, who ruled Travancore between 1829-1846 and made lasting contributions to classical music, especially through his 'keerthans' praising Lord Padmanabha.

The Post-survey programme in south Kerala had also yielded manuscripts in Sanskrit, Malayalam and Tamil on a variety of subjects like Kavya (poetics), Jyotisha (astrology), ayurveda, vishavaidya (toxicology) and purnas (epics), he said

The objective of the NIM was to trace, document and catalogue Indian manuscripts and compile a national data base, he said. The Manuscripts Library of Kerala University has more than 65,000 manuscripts in palmleaf, paper, ivory, tortoise shell and metal.