Digitisation of palm leaf manuscripts at ORI nearing completion

Digitisation of 30,000 palm leaf manuscripts at ORI, Mysore nearing completion, preserving ancient Indian intellectual heritage online.

The digitisation of palm leaf manuscripts at the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) in the city is nearing completion in a project that spanned a little over two years.

The University of Mysore which is the custodian of the ORI, had entered into an MoU with Mythic Society, Bengaluru which had both expertise and technology for undertaking the project and work is expected to be completed within a month.

D.P. Madhusudhanacharya, director, ORI, said that almost all the palm leaf manuscripts – about 30,000 bundles containing nearly 75,000 works - have been digitised and was being made available online for scholars for research and reference.   

The ORI is a repository of not only palm leaf manuscripts but rare paper manuscripts besides nearly 50,000 printed works all of which enshrine a slice of intellectual heritage of India.

 An extant and full copy of Kautilya’s Arthashastra was first discovered at ORI in 1905 by R. Shamashastry and it was published in 1909 opening up new vistas in the study of ancient Indian history, polity and economy. Prior to the discovery of the full text, Kautilya’s Arthashastra was known to have existed only through references made to it by other scholars.

There were concerns that the palm leaf manuscripts some of which are hundreds of years old, were brittle and could be lost to posterity and hence the digitisation project was taken up.

Now the digitised copy of the image text will be made available to scholars online based on their specific request and it will obviate the need to handle the original manuscripts which will enhance their shelf life. In addition, scholars in different parts of the world can now have access to digital copies which will also save time taken to travel all the way to Mysuru to refer the texts.