Rare Indian manuscripts go online

More than 2,000 ancient hand-written manuscripts in an Indian language are about to be made available online.

VL Manjul, a former librarian at a research institute in Maharasthra, has uploaded manuscripts in Marathi dating between the 14th and 19th centuries on to the internet.

The documents, which took Mr Manjul six years to collect, include writings by saints, biographies, ancient Hindu literature and translations from India’s ancient Sanskrit language to Marathi.

About 100 copies of commentary on the Bhagavad Gita by Marathi saint and poet Dnyaneshwar, who reportedly lived in the 13th century, are among the collection.

From these, the oldest copy of the 16-year-old poet’s commentaries was made in 1630.

For four decades, Mr Manjul worked at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), which is well-known for its collection of old manuscripts in ancient languages.

“These manuscripts are assets of different institutes. The collection includes about 250 manuscripts which are currently in the possession of the Marathi Manuscripts Centre,” he said.

“I have been a librarian in BORI for almost 40 years. So, I can appreciate the value of these manuscripts.

“My aim behind making them available on the internet is to make them accessible to people all over the world,” Mr Manjul said.

He has reportedly compiled the collection in a catalogue with relevant details, including the name of the author of each document.

The catalogue, which the former librarian hopes to finish uploading within the next couple of months, will be published in four parts titled Union Catalogue of Marathi Manuscripts.

Mr Manjul’s work will be seen on a website created by the South Asian Studies Centre of Pune’s Deccan College.

He said he hopes his efforts will facilitate the study of the Western Indian language across the globe.

“If a person in some corner of the US wants to study the writings of some Marathi saints, he should be able to do so without any problems,” he said.

More than 5,000 Marathi manuscripts reportedly exist in Pune and Mr Manjul is working towards making all of these available online.

“Pune has about 5,000 Marathi manuscripts with many more spread all over the state. I have already started looking for the remaining.

“I want to get all of them uploaded on the internet for everyone to see and read,” he told the Times of India.

The documents are expected to be made available to the public online in the next three to four months.