ACQUISITION
It is a basic human instinct to preserve the Knowledge which comes through him. Manuscripts are the carriers of preserved ancient Indian schools of knowledge. Indeed so many agencies and institutions are engaged to procure and preserve the manuscripts, but still they are far behind the target. Millions of manuscripts are laying in personal possession and decaying. To preserve and conduct research work on these valuable resources of knowledge, CIFSS has established a section for manuscripts.
CIFSS collected several manuscripts from local people. Following is a list of prominent donors –
- Sanjay Verma collections
- Kalampoor Mana collections
- Ballipatu Mana collections
- Melpazhoor Mana Collections
- Madhavacharya collections, Jaipur
- Divine Life Society collections, Rishikesh
- Dilip kumar Rana collections
Out of 1700 manuscripts in the present collection, 1500 manuscripts have already been preserved, decoded, catalogued and digitized. The remaining manuscripts are being catalogued.
These manuscripts are dated back to 16th to 19th century. Due to age and exposure to natural elements and deterioration the scripts are disintegrating. To preserve these valuable resources of knowledge, CIFSS has established a well equipped digitization unit. With the generous help of British Museum Library (BML) around 1500 manuscripts are digitized.
The palm laves are in Malayalam, Grantha, Telugu, Kannada and Odia scripts. Paper manuscripts are in Devanagari, Gujurati, Bengali and Malayalam scripts. We have prepared digital metadata of digitized manuscripts. The catalogue of manuscripts in book form will be published soon.
