TN Government digitised 30 lakh pages of Archaic Manuscripts

Chennai: The Great Tamil literary scholar, researcher and father of Tamil Literary Publishing is U.V.Swaminathar. The famous Tamil writer named him the "Grandfather of Tamil Literature". U.V.Swaminathar was the first person who collected the archaic manuscripts of the Tamil literary world and published those in printed formats for the first time.

He had gathered nearly 3 thousand pages of manuscripts and printed nearly 90 pages out of them. This preserved the wonderful legacy of archaic Tamil literature. His contemporary C.W.Thamotharam also aided to print very many handwritten Tamil manuscripts. But Colin Mackenzie was the pioneer in printing Tamil manuscripts during British rule in India.

Manuscripts from 1868:

These legendary people aided in preserving ancient Tamil literary pieces. In Today's modern era, prints alone cannot preserve the heritage of Tamil literary pieces. They got to be digitised. In order to preserve as well as to pass on the great gift to future generations digitising these manuscripts are highly vital.

This crucial task was taken over by the Tamilnadu Government. So far the state government has digitised nearly 30 lakh pages of manuscripts. Keelthisai Manuscripts Library administrator R.Chandramohan says, "The Archeology department library is preserving lakhs and lakhs of manuscripts including old printed books. Under the Archeology department, the 'South Indian Temple Manuscripts' book was published long ago which was indeed a remarkable documentation. Its first edition was printed by the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library in 1957. There weren't any re-editions. T.N.Subramanian wrote this book in three parts.

Ancient Astrology Book:

'Saptarishi Nadi' is an ancient astrology book which speaks about traditional astrology methods, nerve astrology with birth signs benefits and solutions for each and every zodiac sign. This Book was published in 6 volumes which the government is planning to get digitised. We are all set to release it as a printed book also.

In this library alone we are preserving manuscripts of nearly 16 languages. Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Sinhala manuscripts are preserved here. Everything in this library is getting digitised. Most of the manuscripts are handwritten copies of archaic manuscripts. So far the state government has spent nearly ₹ 5 crores.

Britishers preserved Tamil Manuscripts:

Our library is conserving Manuscripts from the year 1868. Even before U.V. Swaminathan, Britishers like Colin Mackenzie, Taylor, and Brown worked hard to collect and protect these Tamil manuscripts. The library also consists of collections from British well-wishers. Those manuscripts are also getting digitised.

The State Government's Keelthisai Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Centre was inaugurated during the British period in 1869. This library is getting all the protection from Tamil historians because of its ancientness. So this library is under the maintenance of the Tamilnadu Archeology department. Digitising these ancient Manuscripts are the greatest achievement that was ever made in the Tamil literary and research world. Moreover, in the future, all these digitised versions will be available to the researchers for free in a common platform to download.

Digitising the handwritten manuscripts project was initially started in 2019 under the leadership of Udayachandran IAS. In between during Covid lockdown days the project was shelved. Now the state government has started this process in full swing.

The same digitising process is also being carried out by the World Tamil Research Institute. The project Manager Sathishkumar states, "Tamilnadu government as a single organisation is doing this digitising project in various places through various departments. For instance, Tamil Virtual University is scanning manuscripts and uploading them to its website. On the other hand, the Tamilnadu General Library department as well as the World Tamil Research Institute under Tamil Development Department are digitising very many manuscripts simultaneously.

In particular, our department digitised nearly 250 bundles of Kovilur Matt manuscripts. Numerous scripts were on religions, and some of them are based on Literature and Medicine.

Manikavasgarr's Historical Manuscript:

Many Tamil manuscripts were donated to this math over the years. We found a manuscript called 'Manikavasgar History' which was never even printed. It was a rare piece consisting of so much information that is totally different from what we have about Manickavasagar. There is another math at Melsithamur near Tindivanam, Villupuram district which is like a headquarters for Tamil Jains. The state government digitised all the manuscripts from that math.

The Sivakasinthamani book which was published by U.V.Swaminathar had 3 volumes. But the Sivakasinthamani we found at this math is totally different from the book we are having now. Therefore, ancient Tamil literature wasn't treasured completely by printing technology. Digitising process is bringing many new pieces and information to the world every day.

The Tamilnadu government so far digitised manuscripts from the 18th and 19th century, nearly 250 years old. Until now, the state government had digitised more than 1 lakh ancient handwritten manuscripts.

More than 60 thousand manuscripts recovered:

Tamil Virtual University's Digitising team manager S.Senthil says, "By our team, we digitised more than 7.68 lakh pages of ancient manuscripts. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department digitised more than 60 thousand manuscripts recovered from various temples of Tamilnadu".