Kolkata, Nov 6 (PTI) About two lakh pages of journalsfrom as far back as 1788 till date have been put online as apart of the digital archives of the Asiatic Society, aresearch organisation of national importance here.
The publications and memoirs will now be available onwww.asiaticsocietykolkata.org, which was launched today,Asiatic Society Publication Secretary Ramkrishna Chatterjeesaid.
Asiatic Society President, Professor Isha Mahammedsaid very old manuscripts, old paintings by Europeans andworks of famous sculptors were also being digitised anduploaded on the website.
"It had started from library, then to manuscriptswhich had already been completed totalling 2 lakh pages. Allare being put on public domain," Mahammed said.
Former Prasar Bharati CEO Jawahar Sircar, present atthe launch and architect of the 14-point museum reforms tolink them, said, "The Asiatic Society is a repository of moreheritage, more wisdom than perhaps any other body.
"The sheer volume of digitised catalogues andmanuscripts, the inventories... will be put up on publicdomain, with a huge quantum of knowledge for researchers," hesaid.
According to Secretary and Curator of VictoriaMemorial Hall Dr Jayanta Sengupta, it is a small step, acombined endeavour to digitise materials for public domain. Italso has a huge revenue-generating potential.
"In Victoria we have seen how big the demand is. Weacquired collections of work of Abanidranath Tagore andRabindranath Tagore. For over past three years, we got 45requests from scholars for image of Abanidranath's paintings,"he said, referring to Asiatic Society's digitisation of rareancient paintings.
The publications page of the Asiatic Society containscategories like books, bulletin, catalogues, journals andmemoirs among others.
The Asiatic Society was founded by civil servant SirWilliam Jones in January, 1784. PTI SUSRBT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.