There are many things that add a distinct sweetness to the Pongal celebrations in Tamil Nadu today. The signature ‘sweet pongal’ dish and the crunchy farm fresh sugarcane are just two ingredients that traditionally make the festivities complete and also delicious. But the delightful Pongal gift from Tamil Nadu for modern scholars should be the government proposal to digitalise historic records at Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Centre in Chennai. That 26 lakh pages of documents will be uploaded on the website was a sweet news that wafted in on the eve of the Pongal holidays.
So those immersed in research on a plethora of subjects in far away countries can do away with the long distance journeys that have to undertake hitherto to lay their hands on relevant manuscripts, some of them palm leaves. In fact, tracking the required text, buried in heaps of documents, strewn randomly in dusty shelves inside musty high-ceiling halls of old libraries too has always been a drudgery for those coming looking for historic evidence.
Now, such physical searches will end with the complete treasure trove of knowledge, hidden inside what is considered one of the best manuscript libraries in Asia, going online. So, what would be available at the click of a mouse is 50,180 invaluable palm leaf manuscripts, 22134 paper manuscripts and 26,556 reference books in languages like Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Urdu, Arabic and Persian. The subjects those documents cover include mathematics, astronomy, siddha, ayurveda, unani, veda, agama, architecture, music, sculpture, fine arts, history, grammar and literature. Scholars anywhere can remain seated in their desks, glued to their computers. Will that prompt more young minds to embark on academic research to explore the hoary past of the Orient, particularly Tamil Nadu?
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