Mulford hands over grant of US $ 35,000 to Bangalore college

Chennai, Sep 27 (UNI) U S Ambassador to India David C Mulford today handed over a grant of US dollars 35,000 for preservation of the more than 200-year-old palm leaf manuscripts and rare books in the Union Theological College at Bangalore.

He presented a cheque for 15,000 Dollars as the first instalment of the grant to Dr O V Jathanna, College Principal and Professor of systematic Theology at a function in the US Embassy here.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Mulford said the grant was meant for preserving the ancient palm leaf manuscripts and rare books in the archives of the Union Theological College and conversion of the information into microfiche.

College authorities said about 2,000 palm leaf scripts, which were more than 200-years-old written in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit were available in the college.

The College library also houses numerous manuscripts and rare books. The oldest among the collections was Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians, published in 1523.

The manuscripts would be digitised and converted into microfiche by the end of 2007.

US Consul General in Chennai David T Hopper and Consul for Public Affairs in the US Consulate General Frederick J Kaplan were present on the occasion.

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