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For over two thousand years, scribes have recorded much of India's literary and
scientific heritage on the readily available medium of dried, smoothed and
smoke-treated leaves of talipot (olai in Tamil) palm trees. Carefully
etching letters into the dried leaf with a stylus in a manner that avoids
splitting the leaf and later applying lampblack or turmeric to enhance contrast
and legibility, uncounted generations of scribes preserved much of India's vast
intellectual legacy. When left undisturbed in the tropical climate, these
palm-leaf manuscripts could last three or four centuries, after which a new
patron would commission scribes to copy the precious manuscripts onto freshly
treated palm-leaves.
According to a recent survey, there are more than a hundred thousand
unpublished palm-leaf manuscripts on various aspects of traditional Indian
knowledge in Tamil, one of India's two classical languages (the other being
Sanskrit). This corpus represents a significant portion of the distilled
experience of Tamil-speaking civilization transmitted from generation to
generation over two millennia preserved either through oral tradition or in
written form as palm-leaf manuscripts. These palm-leaves number in the many tens
of thousands in Tamil Nadu alone and may be found in repositories as far north
as Jammu and Kashmir.
The existing palm-leaf manuscripts in Tamil on traditional science cover the
following 12 areas:
Human anatomy (Varmam, surgery)
- Indigenous medicine, including:
- Siddha;
- Ayurveda; and
- Yunani systems
- Veterinary science (Vakatam)
- Agriculture (Kuvam, Karanul)
- Traditional art and architecture:
- Temple art
- Temple architecture
- Shipbuilding
- Carpentry
- Metalworking
- Sculpture
- Traditional musicology
- Techniques of writing
- Astrology & astronomy
- Yoga
- Animal husbandry
- Martial arts
- Physiognomy (Samudria Laksanam)
Given the great intellectual vitality of the Indian mind and Indian culture's
high regard for inherited knowledge, it is no surprise that a vast corpus of
these palm-leaf manuscripts accumulated over the centuries. Until the appearance
of the printing press rendered palm-leaf manuscript transcription obsolete,
Indian rajahs, temple authorities, and other concerned individuals ensured that
the oldest (and hence most valued) manuscripts were ritually disposed only after
they had been copied onto new palm-leaves.
When this age-old cycle was broken in the 19th century, the remaining corpus
of palm-leaf manuscripts and the knowledge contained in them began a long slide
into obscurity and destruction. With the tradition of the scribe fast dying and
with no new system of recording their contents, not only have vast quantities of
these manuscripts disappeared forever, but even the very ability to read the
archaic palm-leaf script, called Grantha, today survives only among
specially-trained scholars.
A
recent tentative survey by the Institute of Asian Studies,
Madras, indicates that there are still about a hundred thousand
palm-leaf manuscripts surviving in South Indian repositories alone, with
thousands more scattered across the subcontinent and overseas. But most of these
palm-leaves are approaching the end of their natural lifetime and are facing
imminent destruction from dampness, fungus, white ants, cockroaches and - not
least of all - disposal by villagers whose actions are dictated less by
reverence than by superstition.
What knowledge is contained in this scattered corpus? A tentative survey
suggests that most are minor or local works of folk literature - a treasure
trove of ethnographic and historical information in itself. But more
practically, some 30-40% of the corpus consists of technical manuals and works
dealing with traditional sciences. These include, notably, tracts dealing with
traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani which have been
shown to be remarkably effective in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases.
Hence, the translation and publication of such technical manuals could
potentially yield benefits far outweighing the effort and expense of recovering
them. Many thousands of manuscript-leaves stand to be recovered - or lost
forever - depending upon the action or inaction taken now. The first stage
comprises of identification, collection, conservation microfilming and
preservation of these palm-leaf manuscripts. The second stage consists of
editing translation, textual criticism etc.
The Institute of Asian Studies has assembled a project team
of highly-qualified and dedicated specialists with experience in preserving and
translating palm-leaf manuscripts. Already the project has published the first
five volumes of a projected 25-volume Descriptive Catalogue of Palm-leaf
Manuscripts.
Traditional medical texts
Today there is a growing appreciation worldwide about traditional knowledge,
particularly in the field of medical science. Most Indian palm-leaf manuscripts
on traditional science pertain to medicine such as the Siddha and Ayurvedic
systems of treatment along with the Unani system popular in the Muslim world.
Modern research has demonstrated that these traditional systems give lasting
relief to many chronic diseases. These systems echew surgery and yet the curing
effect is remarkable, even for very serious diseases which may not cured by
allopathic treatment. Moreover, the native medicines are based either on herbs
or metals which are not injurious to health when used according to traditional
prescription. Nowadays with the help of palm-leaf manuscripts attempts are being
made in India to treat life-threatening diseases like AIDS, heart disease and
diabetes.
The publication of these rare manuscripts will undoubtedly be a welcome
contribution to medical research in India, Asia and worldwide. In India alone
there are a great many medical and technical colleges that will be eager to
access the published results of this project, both in printed and digital
formats. Uncounted humlife improved for millions of others by analysing
traditional Asian medical treatments based upon commonly-available herbs and
minerals.
Being organic in nature, palm-leaf manuscripts are susceptible to decay and
disintegration over time. Most of the extant manuscripts available in the
custodial organisations and with the individual practitioners are on the verge
of disintegration.
Project specialists therefore also take steps to preserve original
manuscripts. Normally chemical treatments are given using fumigation chambers to
protect palm-leaves from white ants, fungus and other insects. Insecticides and
pesticides are useless as the pests develop immunity over time. IAS-trained
specialists treat manuscripts using fumigation boxes or chemicals like Thymol
and chloromate solution.
Digitalization is the crowning stage; the process is currently being
developed by an international team of distinguished scholars from the University
of Cologne (Germany) and the University of California-Berkeley (USA) with
headquarters at the IAS (India) as part of the Tamil Lexicon and Pongal-2000
collaborative projects to compile an Online Tamil Lexicon (OTL). This same
technology may be applied to digitalize the contents of palm-leaf manuscripts
once they have been rendered into modern Tamil by specialists in this field.
Once these texts have been translated and digitalized, they will be
disseminated in the form of a searchable online database and as CD-ROMs as well
as conventional publication as books. Libraries around the world including major
manuscript repositories in India will have their own digital 'reading rooms'
where any MS folio may be brought up for viewing. The pilot programme at the
Institute of Asian Studies, Madras, will also serve as a regional training
centre for librarians and manuscriptologists from other Asian countries that
wish to acquire new techniques of preservation for their national palm-leaf
manuscript collections.
Click Below for another valuable resource
National Mission for Manuscripts _Established by Govt Of India
Since 2003, more than 15,000 manuscripts containing 2.2 million
manuscript pages
BACK TO
HOMEPAGE
For more information about the Memory of the World programme,
visit
Or return to the Institute of Asian Studies (Madras)
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