Enthusiasts and conservationists were taking strenuous efforts to ensure that the contents of the numerous palm leaf and paper manuscripts at the Raja Serfoji Saraswati Mahal Library here were preserved for posterity, Collector A. Annadurai said here on Saturday.
Speaking at the inaugural of the special workshop on Tamil palm leaf manuscript reading on the library premises, Mr. Annadurai pointed out that reading the manuscripts called for precision and understanding which the reader must exercise with patience and caution. The manuscripts were the repository of our rich language, literature, culture, civilisation and all other expressions and it was our duty to preserve them, he said.
The Saraswati Mahal Library is conducting the Tamil Manuscripts Training course for three weeks during which the 30 participants would be exposed to handling the manuscripts, reading and then editing them for publication. The participants would also be trained on measurements since the manuscripts contents would form a long unending sentence without punctuation. Besides language and literature graduates, specialists from the fields of Siddha, Ayurveda and astrology too would find the training useful.
Mr. Annadurai said that the library would soon conduct similar training courses on Sanskrit, Telugu and Marathi manuscripts.
Library Administrative Officer V. Krishnaveni, Libarian Dr. Sudarshan, Tamil Pandit Manimaran and others spoke.
