The proposed digitization of manuscripts at the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) at the University of Mysore has gained traction with the University of Mysore taking new initiatives in this regard.
The University entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mythic Society, Bengaluru on 18 February. This will result in the digitization of manuscripts in which a piece of the intellectual heritage of ancient and medieval India is preserved through literary works and treatises on various subjects.
The ORI is home to about 70,000 manuscripts in addition to 41,000 rare printed and other types of manuscripts. Kautilya’s only and wholly existing quantity Economics ORI was discovered in 1905 by scholar Rudrapatan Shamshastri who published it in 1909. Until then, its existence was known only from references to other ancient works. Economics Throws light on the polity and governance system in ancient India.
The Vice Chancellor of Mysore University, Prof. Yes. Hemantha Kumar said that the timeline of the project is two years, but the completion of digitization may take up to 6 years. He said that depending on the progress, the duration of the project can be extended.
As per the MoU, the ORI palm-leaf manuscripts will be sanitized, and a regular process will be carried out to clean and preserve them, while the list of titles which includes palm-leaf manuscripts, handwritten works and a collection of printed works, will be made available to the public.
All palm leaf works and books will be image-scanned and preserved in a safe place, while the images will be crowdsourced for text digitization. All important palm leaf works will be identified and Unicode digitized with the help of manuscript readers. In addition, ORI will have an independent portal that will provide all the information about the collection apart from sharing its contents.
The urgency to digitize texts stems from the imperative to preserve the knowledge-base for posterity because manuscripts are not only out of date, but have become so brittle and fragile that they turn into powder when opened. As per the MoU, 17 volumes of the published catalog will be digitized for searchable options with new and yet to be published editions.
ORI will have an elaborate manpower and resource planning exercise covering the entire operation from cleaning and treatment of manuscripts to digitization of catalogues. As per the MoU, Mythic Society will hire experienced professionals for the work. In addition, other employees will be recruited or trained to perform various functions at ORI. All employees will be paid by Mythic Society.
,