Digitization of Indian manuscripts heritage

Abstract

India has the distinction of having one of the most ancient, richest and largest collections of manuscripts in the world. These manuscripts which are available in different forms, languages, scripts and cover a wide range of subjects are a powerful medium for the preservation of Indian cultural heritage. But the preservation of these manuscripts is a serious problem for the custodians of manuscripts because of the hot and humid climate of the country. In this context the present paper gives an account of the commendable efforts rendered by the National Mission for Manuscripts since its inception in 2003 by establishing and strengthening 57 manuscript resource centres, 50 manuscript conservation centres and developing a National Database of Manuscripts. It also presents the current status of digitization of Indian cultural heritage in the form of manuscripts starting from its collection to the development of a Digital Manuscript Library for global access.

Keywords

Manuscripts heritage National Mission for Manuscripts manuscript resource centres manuscript conservation centres digitization Digital Manuscript Library

Introduction

India has sustained a glorious tradition of preserving knowledge through oral and written communication since time immemorial. A variety of manuscripts in different forms have been in use since ancient days, ranging from clay tablets to copper plates and from leaves of trees to prepared skins of animals. A good number of manuscripts relating to Art and Architecture, Astronomy, Mathematics, Purana, Vyakarana, Tantra, Yoga, Philosophy and Medicine date back several hundreds of years and are still available for reference today. It is amazing to discover how scholars packed so much information into what they wrote on these manuscripts. As Indian ancient cultural heritage is preserved in manuscripts, these are regarded as valuable sources of information for the reconstruction of the history and culture of the country. Composed in different Indian languages, these manuscripts are spread all over the country in different institutions, libraries, monasteries, temples and in several private collections The manuscripts being organic in nature are quite susceptible to deterioration caused by changes in climatic conditions, bio-deterioration and also by constant handling. But the advent of information and communication technologies brings unprecedented changes in the entire process of information generation, organization, and retrieval as well as in the process of preservation. Digitization, an offspring of the technological innovation has emerged as a viable tool for long-term access to the documentary heritage. Digitization of manuscripts promises documentation and preservation of original texts and at the same time facilitates greater access for scholars and researchers. With this backdrop, this paper discusses the digitization of Indian manuscripts, emphasizing the efforts of the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) in digitizing the manuscripts heritage and thereby developing and maintaining a knowledge base available in manuscript form for generations to come. The NMM is the first national level comprehensive initiative in the world that caters to the need of conserving manuscipts and disseminating knowledge contained therein.

Manuscript: The concept

The term ‘manuscript’ is derived from the Latin word manuscriptus which is a combination of two words, that is manu meaning by hand and scriptus meaning written. So etymologically manuscript means written by hand. In the classical sense the term manuscript refers to a document, handwritten by an author. Manuscripts are found in every part of the world where human beings put their thoughts and experience into written form. In archaeological terms a manuscript is defined as any early writing made on stone, metal, wood, clay, linen, bark, leaves of trees and prepared skins of animals. Hand writings of any kind whether on paper or any other material as opposed to printed materials are called manuscripts (Cornish, 1970). In general, the term manuscript refers to handwritten materials including ancient inscriptions on clay tablets and stone, medieval and renaissance manuscripts of books and codices and modern manuscripts such as literary manuscripts, historical manuscripts and personal papers. There are also no restrictions on the forms of writing whether it is phonetic, pictorial or ideographic. According to the Chambers Dictionary, ‘a manuscript is a book or document written by hand before the invention of printing’. According to the Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science, a manuscript is defined as ‘a written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced by some other way’ (Corea, 1993). The Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules 2nd edition (AACR2) defines manuscripts as ‘materials of all kinds including manuscript books, dissertations, letters, speeches, legal papers and collection of such manuscripts’ (Gorman and Winkler, 1988). However, the definition given in AACR2 seems to be more illustrative of the type of manuscripts and for the present paper the term manuscripts includes a variety of writing mediums such as palm leaf, bamboo leaf, sanchipat, birch-bark, stone, wood and paper: the evidence of which is found in various manuscript resource centres in India. The digitization section of this paper includes in its ambit only palm leaf manuscripts.

Efforts to preserve and catalogue manuscripts in India prior to independence

Manuscripts were the sole medium for the transmission of knowledge, and were the predominant writing medium before the advent of paper. As such, in classical and medieval India, the house of every teacher had a good collection of manuscripts. Manuscripts were also collected by the rulers of different states, including the Mughal emperors, religious institutions, monasteries (mathas) of different sects and the Jain bhandaras. The credit for listing the manuscripts in India for the first time goes to a Jain monk who compiled the manuscripts of Patan, Cambey and Bharauch in the year 1383 under the title Brihattipanika which is still preserved in the Shantinatha Bhandara, Patan. Recognizing the works of Kavindracharya of Varanasi, who compiled the subject-wise classified catalogue of 2192 manuscripts between 1628 and 1688, Mughal emperor Shahjahan conferred on him the title of ‘Sarvavidyanidhana’. King Tipu Sultan of Mysore had built up a library of oriental manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Hindustani languages. The manuscripts from Tipu’s library were studied and catalogued by General Charles Stewart and the catalogue was published by Cambridge University Press under the title A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Library of the Late Tipu Sultan of Mysore (Stewart, 1809). With the establishment of the East India Company’s rule in India, the systematic survey of manuscripts, their collection, preservation, and cataloguing gained further momentum. The British rulers, who took upon themselves the cause of education and of patronizing Indian traditional knowledge systems, directed their attention towards the Indian literary heritage preserved in manuscripts. During the British regime the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, established in 1785, undertook the work on manuscripts collection and documentation. Several government collections gradually came into existence in Calcutta, Varanasi, Pune and Madras. The work of Sir William Jones, Lady Jones and Sir Charles Wilkins in the cataloguing of manuscripts is also praiseworthy and was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London during 1798 and 1799 respectively. Another noteworthy contribution is by Pandit Ramagovinda Tarkaratna who, under the instructions of James Princie, compiled in 1838 a 149-page catalogue of 3000 manuscripts available in the holdings of the College of Fort William Library, the College of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and Banaras Sanskrit Colleges. In the 19th and 20th centuries, survey, search and cataloguing of manuscripts were carried on by both Indian and European experts in various regions of the country, particularly in western, central and northern regions. The names of G Buhler, F Kielhorn, Peter Peterson, RG Bhandarkar, SR Bhandarkar, who listed many manuscripts between 1867 and 1905 AD, deserve special mention in the field of cataloguing of manuscripts. Raja Rajendralala Mitra also performed a great job in cataloguing manuscripts between 1871 and 1891, and after his death his incomplete work was taken over by MM Harprasad Sastri and published between 1898 and 1915 in six volumes.

National agencies working for preservation of manuscripts

Recognizing the richness of Indian literary heritage preserved in manuscripts, the Government of India has taken the initiative to strengthen a number of national level institutions that are particularly devoted to the preservation of Indian manuscripts. Those institutions are:

The National Archives of India (NAI), New Delhi

National Library of India, Kolkata

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi

NAI is the repository of the non-current records of the Government of India and its predecessor, where records are preserved for the use of the administration and scholars. The aims of NAI are to conserve records from all over the country; to encourage the scientific management and greater liberalization of access to archival holdings; to develop greater professionalism and a scientific temper among creators, custodians and users, and aid in spreading a feeling of national pride in the documentary cultural heritage of India and ensuring its preservation for posterity. NAI is making earnest efforts to ensure longevity of the documents in its custody through preventive, curative and restorative processes for which the Department set up the Conservation Research Laboratory in 1941. Since its inception, it has been engaged in research and development work like developing indigenous techniques for restoration, testing of materials required for restoration and storage (www.nationalarchives.nic.in).

The National Library of India, Kolkata was established in 1948 with the passing of the Imperial Library Act, 1948 and has the status of an institution of national importance. It is engaged in the task of acquisition and conservation of all significant production of printed material. It has a rich collection of Persian, Sanskrit, Arabic and Tamil manuscripts and also rare books. It is the recipient library under the Delivery of Books and Newspapers (Public Libraries) Act, 1954 and the repository library for South Asia. It holds more than 6558 volumes of paper as well as palm leaf manuscripts written in different languages and scripts. The Arabic and Persian manuscripts bear beautiful illustrations and fine calligraphy (www.nationallinrary.gov.in). The Library also undertakes the conservation and digitization of manuscripts of national importance as well as its own holdings.

IGNCA was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It is the National information system and Databank in the fields of Arts, Humanities and Cultural Heritage. The Indian Cultural Heritage Resource Centre of IGNCA which is known as ‘Kala Nidhi’ division, is chiefly responsible for the compilation of unpublished manuscripts of Indian and foreign collections and from private and public libraries. This unit has taken an initiative to bring under one roof primary sources of Indian tradition, lying scattered, fragmented, inaccessible and in danger of extinction. This division of IGNCA has collected sizable numbers of manuscripts from east, west, north, north-east, south and central regions of India and began microfilming. To date this division has more than 20,152 film rolls of manuscripts (approx. 12,751,057 folios with 12,275 digitized rolls) in its possession (www.ignca.nic.in).

National Mission for Manuscripts

The National Mission for Manuscripts (NAMAMI) is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The Mission was initiated in February 2003 by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India, and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi is the nodal agency for the execution of this project. The Indian manuscripts heritage covers a variety of themes, textures, scripts, languages, calligraphies, illuminations and illustrations. Together, they constitute the ‘memory’ of India’s history, heritage and thought. NAMAMI aims to locate, document, preserve and digitize Indian manuscripts and make these accessible to connect India’s past with its future and to create a national resource base for manuscripts for enhancing their access, awareness and use for educational purposes. The present study is basically confined to the activities of NMM with special reference to the digitization of Indian manuscripts.

Methodology of the study

The present study is primarily based on the activities of the Mission with regard to growth of manuscript resource centres, conservation centres, documentation of manuscripts, diverse forms and nature of Indian manuscripts with a special reference to the digitization aspect of manuscripts. The required data have been collected from the Annual Reports of the Mission accessible through the website (www.namami.org) and also available in hard copy. Data related to the types of manuscripts, languages, scripts, subject area have been collected from the respective web pages of the resource centres under NMM. Keeping in view the objectives of the study, obtained data have been transferred to tables and figures and finally analyzed to get the results.

Objectives of the study

The study is primarily designed to focus on the following objectives:

To show the growth and distribution of manuscript resource centres (MRCs), manuscript conservation centres (MCCs) along with manuscript collections across various zones and states of India.

To show the diverse nature of Indian manuscripts available in different forms, languages, scripts and subjects.

To focus on the National Database of Manuscripts and the National Electronic Catalogue of Manuscripts.

To make an exclusive assessment of the activities of NMM in respect of the following two aspects:

digitization of manuscripts and its status

development of a Digital Manuscripts Library.

Literature review

A number of studies regarding the digitization of manuscripts have been conducted in different settings, different times and for different manuscript libraries. For this paper some significant studies in the field that focus on different aspects of manuscript digitization in the Indian context have been thoroughly reviewed. Kumar and Shah (2004) have discussed in detail the Scindia Oriental Research Institute (SORI) a pioneer manuscript library of India. Some 4190 manuscripts of importance have been microfilmed by IGNCA at SORI and it has been recognized as one of the MRCs for accessioning, cataloguing and launching of an awareness programme in Madhya Pradesh. Kumar and Shah (2004) also discussed UNESCO’s digitization project ‘The Memory of the World’ initiated in 1993 and the manuscript digitization pilot project ‘Down Memory Lane’ at the National Library of India. Majumdar (2005) has described the history of artistic heritage, history of literary heritage and recorded knowledge of India and viewed that past literary heritage in the form of manuscripts available on palm leaves, cotton, silk, wood, bamboo and copper plates and has also discussed the initiatives taken by the Indian Government in introducing the NMM towards preserving and digitizing these culturally significant works. Ramana (2005) has given a brief overview of India’s largest and ancient manuscript collections, the forms and places of availability of these manuscripts. He also described some indigenous methods of preserving palm leaf manuscripts and has highlighted the important benefits of digital preservation in dissemination of information, the manuscript collections of the NLI and the process of digitization of manuscripts at NLI. Nair (2006) has depicted the valuable recorded knowledge housed in different museums, archives, art galleries and manuscript libraries that are affiliated to Kerala University and has pointed out that development of a campus-wide information system and opting for digitization of the valuable content would help their wider accessibility. Maltesh et al. (2007) have discussed digitization of cultural heritage, particularly manuscripts of India and other parts of the world including the UNESCO project ‘Memory of the World’, Czech National Library, National Library of Australia, etc. This paper also highlights the organizational role of metadata for information retrieval and access as regards manuscripts. Kumar and Sharma (2007) pointed out that digitization of manuscripts in the Indian set up is a bigger challenge than it appears. However, in the area of manuscripts, the Department of Culture, GOI made an ambitious plan in 2003 by constituting the National Mission for Manuscripts to preserve, conserve and digitize manuscripts for posterity and described how Punjab University, Chandigarh is utilizing NMM guidelines to digitize its multilingual holdings. Devi (2008) has described the importance of the Manipur Manuscripts collection and the necessity to preserve the collection in digitized form for future generations. Mazumdar (2009) has described the manuscript collection in Assam as well as initiatives for digital preservation in Assam with reference to the Krishna Kanta Handique Central Library of Gauhati University which has about 4500 valuable manuscripts written on sanchipat, tulapat and paper. Gaur and Chakraborty (2009) have asserted that the glorious past of Indian culture lies in the ancient manuscripts which represent the basic historical evidence with great research value. It is estimated that India possesses more than five million manuscripts, making her the largest repository of manuscript wealth in the world. In order to preserve this knowledge resource and to make these accessible to scholars, IGNCA initiated the most important manuscript microfilming programme in 1989. Gaur and Chakraborty (2009) also discussed topics like the tradition of preservation and access in India, institutional efforts in the fields of preservation and access, initiatives taken by IGNCA and NMM and challenges of manuscript preservation in the 21st century. Saikia and Kalita (2011) have highlighted the digitization process of manuscript collections in the Krishna Kanta Handiqui Library, Guahati, Assam which has 4500 copies of manuscripts on important branches of knowledge written in Assamese, Sanskrit, Bengali, Nepali and Tibetan scripts. The study also describes digitizing tools like scanners, digital cameras, image-processing software, file compression and OCR software along with digital library software like GSDL, DSpace and Eprints as well as the workflow of digitizing manuscripts. Londhe et al. (2011) have focused on the technical know-how required for digitization of manuscripts, discussed the digitization process of manuscripts adopted in the Jayakar Library, University of Pune in India and also evaluated the digitization software used in this project. Singh (2012) has depicted cultural heritage as the symbolic presence that integrates the history, traditions and culture of a country and examined the viability of preserving India’s cultural heritage resources in a digital world to make it globally accessible.

Observation and analysis

Setting up manuscript resource centres

The NMM works with the help of 57 manuscript resource centres (MRCs) spread across the country. These MRCs are well-established Indological institutes, museums, libraries, universities and non-government organizations and function as the Mission’s coordinating agencies in their respective regions. It is observed from Figure 1 that the highest numbers of MRCs (17) function under the North Zone. MRCs under this zone are distributed over six states plus two MRCs function in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The South Zone covers 15 MRCs, whereas East Zone covers 13 MRCs, West Zone covers 9 MRCs and the Central Zone covers 3 MRCs. The zone-wise distribution of MRCs is listed in Appendix 1 and shows the number of states included in each zone along with the number of manuscripts available in each MRC that functions under each zone.

Figure 1.

Distribution of MRCs across various zones.

Figure 2 shows the zone-wise distribution of manuscripts and it is found that the highest number of manuscripts are available in North Zone, i.e. 421,409 (31%), followed by South Zone 374,307 (27%), East Zone 250,124 (18 %), West Zone 255,555 (18%) and Central Zone 78,810 (6%) respectively. So it can be interpreted that both in terms of number of manuscripts and MRCs North Zone is ahead of other four zones.

Figure 2.

Distribution of manuscript collections across various zones.

Setting up manuscript conservation centres

The Mission has identified 50 manuscript conservation centres (MCCs) across the country for the conservation of manuscripts. These MCCs are the nodal centres for all preservation and conservation work relating to manuscripts that work towards fulfilling its motto ‘conserving the past for the future’. These centres provide services such as training in preservation and conservation, workshops on preventive and curative conservation of manuscripts in different institutions and private collections. For this purpose a standard methodology comprising the positive aspects of both traditional Indian practices and modern scientific methods is followed. Table 1 provides the number and percentage-wise availability of MCCs as well as MRCs in the different states as well as union territories of India. Out of a total of 29 states in India, MRCs function in 21 states and in 2 union territories, namely Delhi and Puducherry, whereas MCCs are distributed over 22 states and two MCCs function in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It is observed that both MRCs and MCCs are distributed over most of the states of India under the ambit of NMM for furthering its activities relating to manuscripts. Uttar Pradesh is the state in which the highest percentage (12.28%) of MRCs function whereas Bihar and Karnataka jointly occupy the second position with 8.7% of resource centres. Similarly in the case of MCCs, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Karnataka occupy the first position with 12% of MCCs followed by Kerala with 10% of MCCs.

Table 1.

State-wise distribution of MRCs & MCCs.

Sl. No.	Name of the states	Number of MRCs	% of MRCs	Number of MCCs	% of MCCs
1	Andhra Pradesh	2	3.51	3	6
2	Arunachal Pradesh	0	0.00	1	2
3	Assam	3	5.26	2	4
4	Bihar	5	8.77	3	6
5	Chhattisgarh	1	1.75	1	2
6	Delhi (NCT)	2	3.51	2	4
7	Gujarat	3	5.26	1	2
8	Haryana	1	1.75	1	2
9	Himachal Pradesh	2	3.51	1	2
10	Jammu & Kashmir	2	3.51	1	2
11	Karnataka	5	8.77	6	12
12	Kerala	3	5.26	5	10
13	Madhya Pradesh	3	5.26	1	2
14	Maharashtra	4	7.02	1	2
15	Manipur	1	1.75	1	2
16	Odisha	2	3.51	4	8
17	Puducherry (UT)	1	1.75	0	0
18	Punjab	1	1.75	1	2
19	Rajasthan	1	1.75	3	6
20	Tamil Nadu	4	7.02	2	4
21	Tripura	1	1.75	1	2
22	Uttar Pradesh	7	12.28	6	12
23	Uttarakhand	2	3.51	2	4
24	West Bengal	1	1.75	1	2
	Total	57	100	50	100

Form-wise distribution of manuscripts across MRCs under NMM

Figure 3 gives an idea of the various forms of manuscripts that are available in the MRCs and these are bamboo leaf, birch bark, cloth, hand-made paper, palm leaf, stone, terracotta and wood. It is observed that out of 57 MRCs, palm leaf manuscripts are available in the maximum resource centres (51) that contribute to 46% of the total forms of manuscripts. So it is interpreted that though there were other forms of writing materials, palm leaf was the predominant one. The growth of palm trees in abundance in different parts of the country is the possible cause for plentiful use of palm leaves than other forms of manuscripts.

Figure 3.

Percentage-wise distribution of various forms of manuscripts across MRCs.

Language-wise distribution of manuscripts across MRCs under NMM

Figure 4 shows the language-wise distribution of manuscripts under NMM at various MRCs. It is observed that manuscripts are available in 22 important languages such as Arabic, Bengali, Bhojpuri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Pali, Punjabi, Persian, Prakrit, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan, Turkish, and Urdu. Out of the total manuscripts under NMM covering all the MRCs the majority of the manuscripts are available in Sanskrit and Hindi languages, contributing to (21.12%) and (20.50%) respectively out of the total percentage for all the languages. In languages like Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Maithili, Punjabi, Rajasthani and Turkish, much fewer (0.62% in each language) numbers of manuscripts are seen in various MRCs.

Figure 4.

Language-wise distribution of manuscripts across MRCs in percentage.

Script-wise distribution of manuscripts across MRCs under NMM

Scripts denote the writing systems employed by languages to represent the sounds which form the phonetic base of the language. Each language has its own representation for the sounds and thus has its own script, whereas some of the languages have a common script. Very often it is found that manuscripts are written in one language using the script of another language; for example manuscripts are seen to be written in the Odia language using Devanagari script. From Figure 5, it can be observed that manuscripts have been written using many scripts such as Bengali, Devanagari, English, Grantha, Gaudi, Gujarati Newari, Odia, Sharada, Telugu, Tamil and Tibetan scripts. Out of all the scripts, the percentage of manuscripts written in Devnagari script are highest (43.12%) in comparison to other scripts because Devanagari is the common script used both for Hindi and Sanskrit languages.

Figure 5.

Script-wise distribution of manuscripts across MRCs in percentage.

Subject-wise distribution of manuscripts across MRCs under NMM

From the subject-wise analysis of the manuscripts (Figure 6) it can be observed that manuscripts were written on a variety of subjects. It indicates that authors of manuscripts had profound knowledge of different subject aspects starting from Veda/Vedanta to Literature and Linguistics. The study of the content of the manuscripts shows that the highest percentages of MRCs cover manuscripts on Dharma Shastra (13.4%) followed by Arts (8.2%), Ayurveda, Culture and Literature (7.7%), Linguistics (6.7%), Veda (6.2%), Grammar and History (5.7%), Ecology, Philosophy and Mathematics (4.6%), Astrology, Purana, Vedanta and Anthropology (3.6%), Upanishad (2.6%) respectively.

Figure 6.

Subject-wise distribution of manuscripts across MRCs in percentage.

Growth of manuscript documentation under NMM

One of the significant contributions of the NMM is the detailed documentation of manuscripts in India for creating a National Electronic Database of Manuscripts to provide scholars with a common portal for reference. For this purpose the Mission receives data on manuscripts from three different sources:

National Survey followed by Post-Survey

Manuscript Resource Centres

Manuscript Partner Centres (MPCs) or Private Collections

National Survey is an intensive state-wide programme with the aim to locate every manuscript in the country with a special emphasis on undocumented private collections. In Post-Survey each and every repository unearthed during the National Survey is revisited to document every individual manuscript contained therein. It provides an overview of the number of manuscript repositories in a district to document each manuscript in each repository, in every district, every state and eventually the country. The manuscripts are documented through the Mission’s datasheet known as Manus Data Sheet that covers detailed bibliographic information such as title, author, commentary, language, script, subject, name of repository, number of folios and other relevant details. After the collection of such information, these data are entered into the Manus Granthavali software at the MRCs or MPCs and finally the detail information is sent to the Mission.

Under this scheme it is observed that the highest number of manuscripts has been documented during the year 2007–2008 (813,151) and the total number of manuscripts received for documentation is 3,846,048 (Table 2). The data processing status as on 31 March 2014 is presented below:

Table 2.

Year-wise growth of documentation of manuscripts.

	Data documented		Cumulative/Progressive data			Growth rate	Doubling time
Year	No.	%	No.	%	LOG	(GR)	(DT)
2003–2004	88,569	2.30	88,569	2.30	11.392
2004–2005	202,563	5.27	291,132	7.57	12.582	1.19	0.58
2005–2006	770,111	20.02	1,061,243	27.59	13.875	1.29	0.54
2006–2007	703,196	18.28	1,764,439	45.88	14.383	0.51	1.36
2007–2008	813,151	21.14	2,577,590	67.02	14.762	0.38	1.83
2008–2009	276,271	7.18	2,853,861	74.20	14.864	0.10	6.81
2009–2010	214,114	5.57	3,067,975	79.77	14.937	0.07	9.58
2010–2011	211,053	5.49	3,279,028	85.26	15.003	0.07	10.42
2011–2012	215,492	5.60	3,494,520	90.86	15.067	0.06	10.88
2012–2013	194,749	5.06	3,689,269	95.92	15.121	0.05	12.85
2013–2014	156,779	4.08	3,846,048	100	15.163	0.04	16.66
Total	3,846,048	100			Mean	0.38	7.15

Total data received in electronic format = 2,868,000

Total data received in hard copy = 978,000

Total data edited = 3,190,000

Total data released on website = 3,123,000 (www.namami.org as on 31 March 2014)

The National Electronic Database of Manuscripts is the first online catalogue of Indian manuscripts, where a particular manuscript can be searched on the basis of its title, author, subject or material. A particular repository can also be searched on the basis of name of district and state.

NMM and digitization

In order to create a digital resource base for manuscripts, the NMM initiated a pilot project in 2005 and developed a consistent policy for digitization. Since there is a large corpus of manuscripts available in the country, NMM selects manuscripts for digitization with the following parameters:

manuscripts that are unique and with rare heritage value (where it is possible that without preservation, it would be lost);

manuscripts that deal with disciplines relating to ancient knowledge systems and belonging to a relatively antique period;

material where the users are wide-spread geographically and temporally;

material where the retrieval of information is cumbersome and copies of such material cannot be supplied to the users quickly and easily.

Along with the above parameters for selection of manuscripts, NMM adopts the following procedure for digitization of manuscripts.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process undertaken at the beginning of a digitization project that attempts to set the levels used in the capture process to ensure that the most significant information is captured. The Mission has developed a guideline known as ‘Guidelines for Digitization of Manuscripts’ which covers the detailed guidelines for scanning like image quality, resolution, bit depth, image enhancement process, compression, output specification, etc.

Naming convention and image formats for scanned images

The naming of images is an important issue that is handled by the Mission. Each manuscript digitized is already documented on the Mission’s electronic database and the metadata information for each manuscript scanned is identified by giving it a manuscript identification number (Manus ID) which is generated by the Mission’s Manus Granthavali Software. The Manus ID and the accession number (from the institute/repository catalogue where the manuscript is kept) and where the digitization is taking place, form the basis of naming the digitized images of each manuscript page. Similarly four image formats namely master image (TIFF format), clean image (TIFF format), access image (JPEG format), and thumbnail image (JPEG format) are considered for all the scanned images.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance refers to the series of quality control analyses of the manuscripts during the process of digitization. It is a method of verifying that all the digital reproduction of manuscripts is up to the prescribed standard defined by NMM. Ideally quality assurance is performed on all master images and their derivatives with regard to size and resolution of image, file format, image mode, bit depth, tonal values, brightness, contrast, sharpness, interference, orientation, missing lines or pixel, text legibility, cropped and border areas, etc.

Metadata creation

For each digitized manuscripts two sets of metadata are created namely subject metadata and technical metadata. While subject metadata are generated according to the specific Manus Data Record using Manus Granthavali that covers 24 meta-elements, technical metadata describes the features of the digital file. Technical metadata is automatically generated and assigned to the image file at the time of creation and the data elements covered are: file name, date created, date modified, equipment used, image format, width, height, colour mode, etc. The illustration in Chart 1 depicts the sequential view of the complete digitization process maintained by NMM srarting from material selection to the retrival of manuscripts.

Chart – 1.

Digitization process chart.

Manuscript digitization status of various institutions

Table 3 shows the institutions covered under NNM’s digitization project. It is observed that NMM has taken up the digitization work of 25 MRCs distributed over 11 states and two MRCs of Delhi – the National Capital Territory of India. The total number of digitized images of manuscripts that are available with the Mission is 18,556,462 up to 31 March 2014. The highest number of pages (2,576,879) (13.9%) of manuscripts have been digitized from Allahabad Sankrit Sansthan, Varanasi, UP, followed by Odisha State Museum, Odisha (12.7%) and Bharat Itihas Sanshodhan Mandal, Pune from the state of Maharashtra (11.4%) respectively.

Table 3.

Manuscript digitization status of various institutions.

Sl.			Manuscripts digitized		Pages digitized
No.	Name of institution	State	No.	%	No.	%
1	AkhilBharatiya Sanskrit Parishad, Lucknow	Uttar Pradesh (UP)	12,887	6.2	458,376	2.5
2	Allahabad Sanskrit Sansthan, Varanasi	Uttar Pradesh (UP)	35,020	16.9	2,576,879	13.9
3	Allama Iqbal Library	Jammu & Kashmir	365	0.2	97,648	0.5
4	AnandashramSanstha, Pune	Maharashtra	14,673	7.1	1,249,151	6.7
5	Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune	Maharashtra	35	0.0	22,679	0.1
6	Bharat ItihasSanshodhan Mandal, Pune	Maharashtra	27,302	13.2	2,111,105	11.4
7	BhogilalLeherchand Institute of Indology, Delhi	Delhi	22,907	11.0	1,064,900	5.7
8	French Institute of Pondicherry, Puducherry	Tamil Nadu	506	0.2	170,629	0.9
9	Dr Harisingh Gaur University, Sagar	Madhya Pradesh (MP)	1010	0.5	117,603	0.6
10	Himachal Academy of Arts, Shimla	Himachal Pradesh (HP)	225	0.1	55,751	0.3
11	Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai	Tamil Nadu	500	0.2	34,505	0.2
12	Jain Manuscripts, Lucknow	Uttar Pradesh	180	0.1	42,951	0.2
13	JamiaHamdard, New Delhi	Delhi	4200	2.0	1,010,273	5.4
14	KrishnakantHandiqui Library, Guwahati	Assam	2091	1.0	157,013	0.8
15	KundaKundaJnanapith, Indore	Madhya Pradesh (MP)	7506	3.6	1,156,373	6.2
16	Kutiyattam Manuscripts	Kerala	340	0.2	38,260	0.2
17	NMM Collection, New Delhi	Delhi	562	0.3	121,329	0.7
18	Oriental Research Library, Srinagar	Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)	10,147	4.9	1,973,816	10.6
19	Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar	Odisha	10,907	5.3	2,355,926	12.7
20	Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute	Rajasthan	28,813	13.9	1,792,864	9.7
21	Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Allahabad	Uttar Pradesh	1545	0.7	165,220	0.9
22	Siddha Manuscripts, Chennai	Tamil Nadu	1938	0.9	78,435	0.4
23	Sri Pratap Singh Library	Jammu & Kashmir (J&K)	74	0.0	28,536	0.2
24	Vrindavan Research Institute, Vrindavan	Uttar Pradesh (UP)	22,375	10.8	1,561,864	8.4
25	VVBIS & IS, Hosairpur	Punjab	1500	0.7	114,376	0.6
	Total		207,608	100	18,556,462	100

Figure 7 shows the percentage of digitized manuscripts over the states. It is observed that the highest percentage of manuscripts has been digitized from UP (34.68%) followed by Maharashtra (20.24%) and Rajasthan (13.88%) respectively. The state UP occupies the first position in terms of both number and pages of digitized manuscripts that denotes that more MRCs included for digitization are in UP.

Figure 7.

State-wise contributions in percentage.

Digital Manuscripts Library

For the first time in history, the Mission has taken significant steps to preserve digitally and make easily available almost all literary, artistic, and scientific works in India for research, education, and also for future generations. The Mission aims to set up a Digital Manuscripts Library of India which will foster creativity and easy access to all ancient and medieval Indian knowledge in the form of manuscripts of this country available at one place. This digital library will also become an aggregator of all the knowledge and digital contents created by other digital library initiatives in India. Very soon this library would provide a gateway to Indian Digital Manuscripts Libraries in Science, Arts, Culture, Music, Traditional Medicine, Vedas, Tantras and many more disciplines. NMM has collected hard disks containing digital images of 18,556,462 pages of manuscripts as of March 2014 and more will be received in future as the work of digitization progresses.

Conclusion

In India, the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) is the national level comprehensive initiative that caters to the need of preserving the knowledge held in millions of Indian manuscripts. The present study draws the following conclusions on the basis of the above observations in regard to the selected activities included for the present study:

The National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) is the first consolidated national effort devoted to the survey, documentation, preservation and digitization of manuscripts.

The manuscript heritage of India contains the accumulated knowledge of Indian culture in diverse fields of study.

The manuscript heritage of India is unique in terms of quantity, quality, variety, language, script, subject matter and calligraphy.

The NMM chiefly functions through MRCs and MCCs and it is found that at present there are 57 MRCs and 50 MCCs working under NMM.

The Mission has developed a National Electronic Database of manuscripts which is the first online catalogue of Indian manuscripts that provides information on every manuscript that has been documented through the Mission’s datasheets and the catalogue covers various aspects of manuscripts such as title, commentary, language, script, subject, place of availability, number of pages, illustrations, date of writing, etc.

The electronic data available in the NMM website stands at around 3,123,000 as of 31 March 2014.

Digitization process, benchmarking and quality control parameters are well defined by NMM.

The Mission has successfully digitized 18,556,462 pages of manuscripts from 25 leading MRCs under NMM.

Establishing a digital library of manuscripts and linking the library with the manuscripts database for research purpose of the scholars is in progress.

Footnotes

Appendix I: Zone-wise distribution of MRCs

Sl. No.	Name of the Resource Centre	Zone	State	No. of Manuscripts	URL
1	Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh	North	Jammu & Kashmir	9241	www.cibsleh.in
2	Directorate of State Archaeology, Archives and Museum, Srinagar	North	Jammu & Kashmir	28,137	http://jktourism.org
3	Himachal Academy of Arts, Culture and Languages	North	Himachal Pradesh	60,379	https://coral.uchicago.edu
4	Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala	North	Himachal Pradesh	95,998	http://www.ltwa.net
5	Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra	North	Haryana	27,423	www.kuk.ac.in
6	VisweshvaranandaBiswabandhu Institute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies	North	Punjab	26,206	www.vvbisis.puchd.ac.in
7	Uttaranchal Sanskrit Academy, Haridwar	North	Uttarakhand	25,927	http://www.euttaranchal.com
8	Rampur Raza Library, Rampur	North	Uttar Pradesh	43,300	www.razalibrary.com
9	Sampurnanand Sanskrit Visvavidyalaya,	North	Uttar Pradesh	51,330	www.ssvv.ac.in
10	AkhilBhartiya Sanskrit Parishad, Lucknow	North	Lucknow	2500
11	H. N. B. Garhwal University, PauriGarhwal	North	Uttaranchal	741	http://www.srinagargarhwal.com
12	Vrindavan Research Institute, Vrindavan	North	Uttaranchal	45,206	www.vrindavanresearchinstitute.org
13	KM Hindi Institute of Hindi Studies and Linguistics, Agra	North	Uttar Pradesh	1400	www.dbrau.ac.in
14	Bhai Vir Singh SahityaSadan, New Delhi	North	Delhi	214	www.bvss.org
15	Institute of Tai Studies and Research Moranhat, Assam	North	Assam	788	http://wikimapia.org
16	BL Institute of Indology, Delhi	North	Delhi	1363	www.blinstitute.org
17	Mazahar Memorial Museum, Bahariabad, Ghazipur (UP)	North	Uttar Pradesh	1256
18	Oriental Research Institute, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati	South	Andhra Pradesh	33,543	www.svuniversity.in
19	Andhra Pradesh Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute, Hyd.	South	Andhra Pradesh	24,000	www.manuscriptslibrary.ap.nic.in
20	French Institute of Indology, Pondicherry	South	Puducherry	37,494	www.ifpindia.org
21	Oriental Research Institute Mysore	South	Karnataka	78,141	www.uni-mysore.ac.in
22	Department of Manuscriptology, Kannada University, Hampi	South	Karnataka	3000	www.kannadauniversity.org
23	National Institute of Prakrit Studies and Research, Shravanabelagola	South	Karnataka	15,000	www.jainmanuscripts.nic.in
24	Keladi Museum and Historical Research Bureau, Shimoga	South	Karnataka	400	http://www.craftrevival.org
25	Mahabharata SamshodhanaPratishthanam, Bangalore	South	Karnataka	59,886	http://www.poornaprajna.com
26	Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoj’sSaraswati Mahal Library, Thanjavur	South	Tamilnadu	36,323	www.sarasvatimahallibrary.asp
27	Central Library University of Madras, Chennai	South	Tamilnadu	5222	www.unom.ac.in
28	Sri Chandra SekharendraSaraswathiViswaMahavidyalaya, Kanchipuram	South	Tamilnadu	5000	www.kanchiuniv.ac.in
29	Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala	South	Kerala	75,680	www.keralauniversity.ac.in
30	Thunchan Memorial Trust, Tirur	South	Kerala	143,970	www.thunchanmemorial.org
31	DG Centre for Heritage Studies, Thripunithura	South	Kerala	498	http://www.kerala.gov.in
32	GOML & Research Centre University of Madras Library Campus, Chennai	South	Tamilnadu	1214	www.tnarch.gov.in
33	Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna	East	Bihar	1214	www.kblibrary.bih.nic.in
34	Kameshware Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University, Darbhanga	East	Bihar	5562	www.ksdsu.edu.in
35	Nava NalandaMahavihara, Nalanda	East	Bihar	20,000	www.navanalandamahavihara.org
36	Sri DK Jain Oriental Research Institute, Arrah	East	Bihar	3179
37	Calcutta University Manuscripts Library Kolkata	East	Kolkata	42,000	http://www.caluniv.ac.in
38	Odisha State Museum Bhubaneswar	East	Odisha	37,273	www.odishamuseum.nic.in
39	SARASVATI, Bhadrak	East	Odisha	98,424	http://pincode.net.in
40	Krishna KantaHandiqui Library Gauhati University of Gauhati	East	Assam	4500	www.gauhati.ac.in
41	Manipur State Archives Imphal, Manipur	East	Assam	36,602	http://archivesmanipur.nic.in/
42	BC Gupta Central Library Gurucharan College Silchar, Assam	East	Assam	500	http://www.gccollege.ac.in/
43	Tripura University, Tripura	East	Tripura	870	http://www.tripurauniv.in
44	Patna Museum, Patna	East	Bihar	–
45	Culture and Archiology, Raipur	East	Chhattisgarh	–
46	Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, Jodhpur, Rajasthan	West	Rajasthan	176,954	http://www.rori.nic.in
47	LalbhaiDalpatbhai Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad	West	Gujarat	64,740	http://beta.ldindology.org
48	Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune	West	Maharashtra	68,877	http://www.bori.ac.in/
49	KavikulaguruKalidasa Sanskrit University, Ramket	West	Maharashtra	6143	http://www.sanskrituni.net
50	Institute for Oriental Studies (Shivashakti) Thane	West	Maharashtra	1244	http://www.orientalthane.com
51	Sat ShrutPrabhavana Trust, Bhavnagar	West	Rajasthan	59,001	http://www.satshrut.org
52	AnandasharmSanstha, Pune	West	Maharashtra	1536	http://sanskritbhavan.blogspot.in
53	Shivaji University Kolhapur	West	Maharashtra	6517	http://www.unishivaji.ac.in/
54	Shri Dwarakadhish Sanskrit Academy and Indological Research Institute	West	Gujarat
55	Scindia Oriental Research Institute Vikram University Ujjain	Central	Madhya Pradesh	18,000	http://www.indianetzone.com
56	Dr HS Gaur University, Sagar	Central	Madhya Pradesh	33,983	http://www.dhsgsu.ac.in
57	KundaKundaJnanapitha, Indore	Central	Madhya Pradesh	26,827	www.kundakunda@sancharnet.in

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

Corea

(1993) Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science. New Delhi: Akashdeep.

Cornish

(1970) The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition. New York: Americana Corporation.

Devi

(2008) Impact of information technology on the societal archive: A case study of Manipuri manuscripts. International Information and Library Review 40(3): 179–184.

Gaur

Chakraborty

(2009) Preservation and access to Indian manuscripts: A knowledge base of Indian cultural heritage resources for academic libraries. In: ICAL 2009 – Vision and roles of the future academic libraries, New Delhi, India, 5–8 October 2009, pp. 90–98. New Delhi: University of Delhi.

Gorman

Winkler

(eds) (1988) Anglo American Cataloguing Rules. 2nd edn. Chicago, IL: ALA.

Government of India. Department of Culture (2002) National Mission for Manuscripts. Project Report. New Delhi: Department of Culture, India.

Government of India. Department of Culture (2004) National Mission for Manuscripts. Available at: http://www.india.gov.in/knowindia/national_mission.php (accessed 15 December 2014).

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). Available at: www.ignca.nic.in (accessed 13 December 2015).

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (2003) National Mission for Manuscripts. Report, IV (July–August 2002). Available at: http://www.ignca.nic.in/nl002203.htm (accessed 23 November 2014).

10.

Kumar

Sharma

(2007) Digitization of manuscripts and rare literature: Initiatives of Archival Cell, Panjab University, Chandigarh (INDIA). In: 5th International CALIBER 2007, Punjab University, Chandiharh, India, 8–10 February 2007, pp. 12–24.

11.

Kumar

Shah

(2004) Digital preservation of manuscripts. In: 2nd Convention PLANNER – 2004, Manipur University, Impha, India, 4–5 November 2004, pp. 27–36. Ahmedabad: INFLIBNET.

12.

Londhe

Sanjay

Suresh

(2011) Development of a digital library of manuscripts: A case study at the University of Pune, India. Program 45(2): 135–148.

13.

Majumdar

(2005) Preservation and conservation of literary heritage: A case study of India. International Information & Library Review 37(3): 179–187.

14.

Maltesh

Lakhar

Gajakose

(2007) Digitization of culture. In: 5th Convention PLANNER – 2007, Gauhati University, India, 7–8 December 2007, pp. 245–253. Ahmedabad: INFLIBNET.

15.

Mazumdar

(2009) Digital preservation of rare manuscripts in Assam. In: 7th International CALIBER, Pondichery University, Puducherry, India, 25–27 February 2009, pp. 14–19.

16.

Nair

(2006) Digitization of indigenous materials: Problems and solutions in the context of Kerala University. In: Rajan

(ed.) Library and Information Studies in the Digital Age: Prof. K. A. Isaac Commemoration Volume. New Delhi: Ess Publications. pp. 1–21.

17.

National Archives of India. Available at: www.nationalarchives.nic.in (accessed 12 January 2015).

18.

National Library of India, Kolkata. Available at: www.nationallinrary.gov.in (accessed 13 January 2015).

19.

National Mission for Manuscripts. Available at: http://www.namami.nic.in (accessed 5 November 2014).

20.

National Mission for Manuscripts (2005) Guidelines for Digitization of Manuscripts. Available at: http://www.namami.nic.in (accessed 5 November 2014).

21.

National Mission for Manuscripts (2014) Report of the Eleventh Year 2013–14. Available at: http://www.namami.nic.in (accessed 23 November 2014).

22.

Ramana

(2005) Digital preservation of Indian manuscripts – An overview. In: 3rd International CALIBER 2005, Cochin, India, 8–10 February 2007, pp. 370–376. Ahmedabad: INFLIBNET.

23.

Saikia

Kalita

(2011) Prospects of digitizing manuscript collection in KKH Library: A model. In: 8th International CALIBER – 2011, Goa University, Goa, India, 2–4 March 2011, pp. 312–319. Ahmedabad: INFLIBNET

24.

Singh

(2012) Digital preservation of cultural heritage resources and manuscripts: An Indian Government initiative. IFLA Journal 38(4): 289–296.

25.

Stewart

(1809) A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Library of the Late Tipu Sultan of Mysore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.