Palm leaf manuscripts have many stories from the past and Mysore has an entire research center dedicated to them.

This institute was established in Mysore by Sri Chamarajaendra Wadiyar, who was the ruler of the princely state at that time. The foundation stone of Jubilee Hall (that house ORI) was laid in 1887 and commemorates the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s accession to the British throne.

One of the other important publications is Sritattvanidhi, a scholarly work of Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, that has nine volumes spanning several aspects of Indian traditional knowledge. This book has some fine examples of traditional paintings and illustrations that make this an excellent collection.

One of the largest manuscripts here is 30 cm long and the precision of the writing, without a pen and without any errors is nothing short of amazing. The large collection of paper manuscripts here are also over 500 years old. Some paper manuscripts also have some fine artwork that must not be missed.

The library that is inhouse has over 40000 books in Sanskrit, English, Kannada and other languages and is thronged by teachers, students, research scholars and scholars. Within the library is a display of instruments, raw materials and more that give you an insight into the creation of the manuscripts.

Read the full story that first appeared in Amore magazine here: