Treasures of the Past (Oriental Research Institute & Manuscript Library)

Submitted by UMAMAHESWARI on Tue, 2006-12-05 18:43. Other

In the journey from tablets to tabloids, cave dwellings to computer screens written words have traversed diverse mediums and has brought to life countless stories-factual and fictitious.

The Orient Research Institute and Manuscript Library in the Kerala University Campus, in Karaivattom is a treasure house of many such stories, chronicled on palm leaves on agartuk, on bhujapatra, and on copper plates.

The Maharajas of Travancore were great patrons of art and literature and they themselves were experts in some field or other-Kulasekhara Alwar, Kulasekhara Varma, Dharma Raja, Swati TIRUNAL AND Ayilyam Tirunal for instance.

It was Ayilyam Tirunal who ordered the collection of Palm leaves, and other manuscripts. The attempt brought to light Swapnavasavadatta, a play penned by Bhasa unearthed from Manalikkara Madom in Padmanabhapuram. The 13 plays of Bhasa were given up as lost. Sree Moolam Tirunal was responsible for the spread of Oriental Literature. Bhaktimanjari, by Swati Tirunal was published in 1903 and was popular in Germany by 1907! Thanks to T. Ganapathi Sastry.

A visit to the ORI & ML provides a visual feast of time honored manuscripts and illustrations. Here are a few highlights:
Devi Mahatmyam:
It is a garland of palm leaves- a rich tribute to the dexterity of our ancestors. It consists of a string of fifteen beads, each made of inseparable palm leaves pressed against two ingeniously worked out knots. It has a beautiful wooden case too.

Ragarthadeepika:
A bundle of 191 leaves is done on exceptionally long palm leaves (30”).
SKANDAPURANAM: (TAMIL)
It has 611 leaves, AND IT MEASURES 2X2 ft. The name of the author is unknown.
Devi mahatmyam 11th chapter: it is the smallest manuscript, known (2”x1”).
Arthasastra Bhasahvakya: a commentary on Arthasastra, in Malayalam and is 600 years old.

Makaraprakarna: a manuscript on black magic has 40 lines crammed in single folio. This could be a deliberate attempt to make it illegible, to the lay man.
Arya Manju sree moola kalpam: is a tantric work on Buddhism, unearthed from Manalikkara Madom. The script is in Devanagiri, written with special resinous ink. It consists of 307 palm leaves. Professor Sylvain Levi of Sorbonne was entrusted with the task of correcting grammatical errors. Levi had come across, only the Chinese version of it and requested Dr.Ganapathi Sastri, to publish the original version of it. Pandit K P Jayasval, the famous historian extols the publication. It helped to reconstruct a period of Indian Imperial history from 600 BC TO 700 AD.

Chitra Ramayana & Chitra Mahabharata: is a rare and prestigious possession. A former Indian Ambassador to Indonesia donated two valuable illustrated manuscripts to the library. They are more than 500 years old. The former is the representation of Ramayana in 359 condensed sequences. Each folio is 13.5” long and 3” wide. Battle scenes occupy 50 percent of the work. These illustrations effectively communicate the ideas of the artist. The artist has differentiated Rama from Lakshmana, by adorning his head gear with a peacock feather. The apparel and the ornaments resemble that of kutiyattam. Ravana smiles with an air of vengeance while chopping off the wings of Jatayu. The anger in the eyes of the bird is beyond description. The effect of the forest is brought out through a few bold strokes. Wild animals and bird are found in “the dense forest”.
The author is unknown. In the concluding stanza the author says that he is the disciple of a Brahmin, called Balakavi, and did this work as per the direction of the preceptor.

“Most of the manuscripts are in Grantha, Nandinagiri, Vattezhuthu, and Malayanma. Grantha is the oldest South Indian script” says DR. Visalakshi Director of ORI & ML. Most of the manuscripts are supported by/strengthened by wooden planks. Ramayana scrolls are supported by ivory planks, with exquisite carvings of Anathasayanam as seen in the temples of Sree Padmanabha(Trivandrum) and Adi kesava Perumal (Thiruvattar). “The institute has 65,000 manuscripts, out of which 56,000 works in 30,000 codices are catalogued. 35060 Sanskrit manuscripts are catalogued in seven volumes” informs the Director.
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