BANGALORE: The Centre for Kannada Studies in Bangalore University is planning to digitise rare manuscripts in its possession, one of which dates back to the fifth century.
It is only a matter of time before the rare, ancient manuscripts head towards natural destruction. The gradually-aging manuscripts have forced officials to think of ways to preserve them.
Located on the Jnanabharathi campus, the centre houses over 3,000 manuscripts collected over the years, covering as many as 5,000 subjects.
S V Somashekhar, a running-script expert who takes care of the manuscripts depository, says citronella oil is applied on the palm leaf manuscripts every day. “So far, not a single manuscript has been destroyed. But we have about 3,000 and it takes time to cover each one of them. Once the oil is applied, the manuscripts remain intact for one year. But some manuscripts are so old that they are bound to deteriorate,” he told Express. The first set of manuscripts was donated to the centre in 1972 by scholar B Shivamurthy. Since then, the centre has managed to acquire rare manuscripts in Sanskrit, Kannada, Tigalari and other languages, besides 70 copper plates.
The oldest manuscript dates back to 403 AD and is titled Vritta Villasana Dharma Pariksha, and the centre owns the only handwritten script of Sri Ramashwamedha, an acclaimed work by 19th century Kannada poet Muddana. C B Honnu Siddhartha, director of the centre, said an expert committee would be formed to undertake digitisation of the manuscripts.
“Not a single manuscript has been digitised so far. We plan to write to the National Mission for Manuscripts for funds. Scanning them is the best way to preserve them, and it takes about `50 lakh to digitise what we have here,” he said. The university has already started transcribing some of the manuscripts into books. “Six books were published in January and 30 more are set for release in November,” Siddhartha said.
Sanskrit Department
The Department of Sanskrit too has a collection of manuscripts in its library. C Shivaraju, Sanskrit reader, said the department had written to the University Grants Commission for funds to set up a separate air-conditioned room to preserve the manuscripts. “We need funds to preserve the manuscripts.”
The university has 40 post-graduate Kannada students and seven post-graduate Sanskrit diploma students studying manuscriptology. This year, the Karnataka Sanskrit University (KSU) has started its own post-graduate diploma in manuscriptology, a 11-month course. This has eaten into Bangalore University’s admissions — only seven this time as against 15 last year (20 seats are available).
“Twelve students have joined us and admissions are open till September 20. Our course is based on shastras, whereas Bangalore university’s course is general,” said Vinayak Namannavar, assistant professor at KSU.