Penultimate volume of Sarvavijnanakosham to be released on May 28

SIEP nears completion of Malayalam encyclopaedia with release of 19th volume featuring diverse topics and prominent individuals.

A mammoth project launched six decades ago to create a multi-volume general encyclopaedia in Malayalam will inch closer to the finishing line when the State Institute of Encyclopaedic Publications (SIEP) releases the 19th volume on Wednesday (May 28, 2025).

When the hefty first volume of the Sarvavijnanakosham was published in 1972, the series was meant to have, in all, 20 volumes featuring 30,000 titles. The 904-page 19th volume, containing close to 1,500 titles, opens with Bhooparishkaranam (Land Reforms) and concludes with Vyomagathagatham (Aviation).

Minister for Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian will release the penultimate volume in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

“We hope to publish the 20th and final volume next year, after which SIEP will work on the online editions of the encyclopaedia and their updates,” SIEP director Muse Mary George told The Hindu. “Highlights of the 19th volume include detailed pieces – arranged in the Malayalam alphabetical order – on land reforms, the Malayalam language, technological topics such as robotics, several nations and Indian States and prominent individuals,” R. Aniruddhan, the editor of the 19th volume, said.

Some of the prominent individuals featured in the 19th volume include Malcolm X, Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Virginia Woolf, Bob Marley, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. From India, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, historian Romila Thapar, playback legends Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and K.J. Yesudas, actors Mammooty and Mohanlal, and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan find a place in this volume.

The Kerala government took the decision to bring out a general encyclopaedia in Malayalam in 1961. The eminent scholar, N. Gopala Pillai, was appointed as the chief editor. The original plan was to publish it in ten volumes. Professor Gopala Pillai passed away in 1968. K.M. George took over as the chief editor in 1969. The scope of the project was subsequently expanded to 20 volumes, and the first  was released in 1972.

The Sarvavijnanakosham was conceived as a compendium in Malayalam that, while remaining authoritative, seeks to impart knowledge in an uncomplicated manner. Dr. George, in his preface to the first volume, observed that for democracy to be fulfilled in its true spirit, the language of the people should also become the medium of all social transactions. “The government has given its approval for making Malayalam the medium in administration, courts and all aspects of education. But if this aim is to be achieved, there should be many more books in the language that impart knowledge,” he wrote.