Project to preserve palm-leaf manuscripts

06-27-2004, 07:57 PM

Project to preserve palm-leaf manuscripts of Asia

For over two thousand years, scribes have recorded much of India's
literary and scientific heritage on the readily available medium of
dried, smoothed and smoke-treated leaves of talipot ( olai in Tamil)
palm trees. Carefully etching letters into the dried leaf with a
stylus in a manner that avoids splitting the leaf and later applying
lampblack or turmeric to enhance contrast and legibility, uncounted
generations of scribes preserved much of India's vast intellectual
legacy. When left undisturbed in the tropical climate, these palm-
leaf manuscripts could last three or four centuries, after which a
new patron would commission scribes to copy the precious manuscripts
onto freshly treated palm-leaves.

According to a recent survey, there are more than a hundred thousand
unpublished palm-leaf manuscripts on various aspects of traditional
Indian knowledge in Tamil, one of India's two classical languages
(the other being Sanskrit). This corpus represents a significant
portion of the distilled experience of Tamil-speaking civilization
transmitted from generation to generation over two millennia
preserved either through oral tradition or in written form as palm-
leaf manuscripts. These palm-leaves number in the many tens of
thousands in Tamil Nadu alone and may be found in repositories as
far north as Jammu and Kashmir.

The existing palm-leaf manuscripts in Tamil on traditional science
cover the following 12 areas:

1. Indigenous medicine, including:

Siddha;

Ayurveda; and

Yunani systems

1. Human anatomy (Varmam, surgery)

2. Veterinary science (Vakatam)

3. Agriculture (Kuvam, Karanul)

4. Traditional art and architecture:

o Temple art

o Temple architecture

o Shipbuilding

o Carpentry

o Metalworking

o Sculpture

5. Traditional musicology

6. Techniques of writing

7. Astrology & astronomy

8. Yoga

9. Animal husbandry

10. Martial arts

11. Physiognomy (Samudria Laksanam)

Given the great intellectual vitality of the Indian mind and Indian
culture's high regard for inherited knowledge, it is no surprise
that a vast corpus of these palm-leaf manuscripts accumulated over
the centuries. Until the appearance of the printing press rendered
palm-leaf manuscript transcription obsolete, Indian rajahs, temple
authorities, and other concerned individuals ensured that the oldest
(and hence most valued) manuscripts were ritually disposed only
after they had been copied onto new palm-leaves.

When this age-old cycle was broken in the 19th century, the
remaining corpus of palm-leaf manuscripts and the knowledge
contained in them began a long slide into obscurity and destruction.
With the tradition of the scribe fast dying and with no new system
of recording their contents, not only have vast quantities of these
manuscripts disappeared forever, but even the very ability to read
the archaic palm-leaf script, called Grantha, today survives only
among specially-trained scholars.

A recent tentative survey by the Institute of Asian Studies, Madras,
indicates that there are still about a hundred thousand palm-leaf
manuscripts surviving in South Indian repositories alone, with
thousands more scattered across the subcontinent and overseas. But
most of these palm-leaves are approaching the end of their natural
lifetime and are facing imminent destruction from dampness, fungus,
white ants, ########### and - not least of all - disposal by
villagers whose actions are dictated less by reverence than by
superstition.

What knowledge is contained in this scattered corpus? A tentative
survey suggests that most are minor or local works of folk
literature - a treasure trove of ethnographic and historical
information in itself. But more practically, some 30-40% of the
corpus consists of technical manuals and works dealing with
traditional sciences. These include, notably, tracts dealing with
traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani
which have been shown to be remarkably effective in the treatment of
a wide variety of diseases.

Hence, the translation and publication of such technical manuals
could potentially yield benefits far outweighing the effort and
expense of recovering them. Many thousands of manuscript-leaves
stand to be recovered - or lost forever - depending upon the action
or inaction taken now. The first stage comprises of identification,
collection, conservation microfilming and preservation of these palm-
leaf manuscripts. The second stage consists of editing translation,
textual criticism etc.

The Institute of Asian Studies has assembled a project team of
highly-qualified and dedicated specialists with experience in
preserving and translating palm-leaf manuscripts. Already the
project has published the first five volumes of a projected 25-
volume Descriptive Catalogue of Palm-leaf Manuscripts.

Traditional medical texts

Today there is a growing appreciation worldwide about traditional
knowledge, particularly in the field of medical science. Most Indian
palm-leaf manuscripts on traditional science pertain to medicine
such as the Siddha and Ayurvedic systems of treatment along with the
Unani system popular in the Muslim world. Modern research has
demonstrated that these traditional systems give lasting relief to
many chronic diseases. These systems eschew surgery and yet the
curing effect is remarkable, even for very serious diseases which
may not cured by allopathic treatment. Moreover, the native
medicines are based either on herbs or metals, which are not
injurious to health when used according to traditional prescription.
Nowadays with the help of palm-leaf manuscripts attempts are being
made in India to treat life-threatening diseases like AIDS, heart
disease and diabetes.

The publication of these rare manuscripts will undoubtedly be a
welcome contribution to medical research in India, Asia and
worldwide. In India alone there are a great many medical and
technical colleges that will be eager to access the published
results of this project, both in printed and digital formats.
Uncounted humlife improved for millions of others by analysing
traditional Asian medical treatments based upon commonly available
herbs and minerals.

Being organic in nature, palm-leaf manuscripts are susceptible to
decay and disintegration over time. Most of the extant manuscripts
available in the custodial organisations and with the individual
practitioners are on the verge of disintegration.

Project specialists therefore also take steps to preserve original
manuscripts. Normally chemical treatments are given using fumigation
chambers to protect palm-leaves from white ants, fungus and other
insects. Insecticides and pesticides are useless as the pests
develop immunity over time. IAS-trained specialists treat
manuscripts using fumigation boxes or chemicals like Thymol and
chloromate solution.

Digitalization is the crowning stage; the process is currently being
developed by an international team of distinguished scholars from
the University of Cologne (Germany) and the University of California-
Berkeley (USA) with headquarters at the IAS (India) as part of the
Tamil Lexicon and Pongal-2000 collaborative projects to compile an
Online Tamil Lexicon (OTL). This same technology may be applied to
digitalize the contents of palm-leaf manuscripts once they have been
rendered into modern Tamil by specialists in this field.

Once these texts have been translated and digitalized, they will be
disseminated in the form of a searchable online database and as CD-
ROMs as well as conventional publication as books. Libraries around
the world including major manuscript repositories in India will have
their own digital 'reading rooms' where any MS folio may be brought
up for viewing. The pilot programme at the Institute of Asian
Studies, Madras, will also serve as a regional training centre for
librarians and manuscriptologists from other Asian countries that
wish to acquire new techniques of preservation for their national
palm-leaf manuscript collections.

http://www.xlweb.com/heritage/asian/palmleaf.htm

My Comments
Number of Comments: 2
Page: 1

It is true that these leaves are to be copied in a permanent form
and distributed to the needy who can make best use of ancient
knowledge. I have come across a few persons having these leaves
which are called as NAADI GRANTHA, which details about the past
present and future of a particular human being. It is really
astonishing. Long live our ancient knowledge. Hats off to our
ancestors. Bharath Mata ki jai
Posted by: Reddappa Setty NEW DELHI-BHARATHA 27th Jun 2004
Nice article, It was good and informative and i would like to
promote similiar articles here. This articles gives us the feeling
about our rich culture and we should strive hard to preserve it.
Long live India and Indian culture
Posted by: Abhay jere Tokushima-Japan 23rd Jun 2004