Madras Literary Society
The Madras Literary Society was started by Thomas Newbolt, a Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in 1812 along with the Bengal Asiatic Society, Calcutta and the Bombay Asiatic Society. Through this society, training was given to the East India Company’s ‘Madras Employees’. The Library has 80,000 books in English, Sanskrit, German, Dutch and French. Colonel Colin Mackenzie , who was in the Madras Engineers, collected many manuscripts, coins, maps and inscriptions. After his death in 1821 his collection was divided into three parts and dispatched to London, Calcutta and the Madras Literary Society. The 1898 Buckingham Canal Project and A Survey of Ganges Canal Project are important original documents, besides many rare maps, that are available hereInitially functioning from within the Fort and till 1905, within the Connemara Library, this library is now inside the DPI Complex, Nungambakkam..
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In 1840 Dr. Edward Balfour invited important people from the Muslim community in Madras for a conversation and encouraged them to open a library. In this connection, the last Nawab of Carnatic, Nawab Ghulam Ghouse Khan donated Rs. 700 to start a library and Rs. 35 per month for its maintenance. The king of Egypt donated 240 books in Arabic and Persian. The library has many 400-year-old books and manuscripts in Persian, Urdu, and Arabic. The library also received books from London, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. The present Nawab of Arcot is the president of this Library that is on Triplicane High Road.
Government Oriental Manuscripts Library
The Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, which was founded in the year 1867, is one of the world’s largest manuscript libraries. It is mainly composed of three major collections — Colonel Colin Mackenzie’s, Dr. Leyden’s and C.P. Brown’s
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Dr. Leyden, a frequent traveller to India, collected many manuscripts in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. After his death, his collection was housed at India Office Library, London. Dr. C.P. Brown was the one who found this collection and took steps to bring it back to India in 1837.
Dr. Brown also donated his collection of manuscripts in Tamil, Sanskrit and Telugu to East India Company. In 1855 this collection was brought to India. These collections were kept in the Presidency College up to 1870. Picford, the Professor of Sanskrit at the Presidency College, indexed the manuscripts and also purchased and collected many more. This library now operates from the first floor of the Madras University Library.
Adyar Library and Research Centre
The president and the founder of the Theosophical Society, Colonel H.S. Olcott started this library in 1886 with the aim of reviving the study of Oriental literature, philosophy, religion and Indian studies. The Library has more than 18,000 manuscripts and more than three lakh books on Indian culture and literature, fine arts, history, archaeology and moreIt also houses books on Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Latin and other Eastern and Western languages. The display room attached to the library has a miniature Bhagavad-Gita, a miniature Bible, a Chinese scroll containing Buddhist hymns (said to have come from the Imperial Library), a Tibetan painting on handmade paper, among other artefacts. . The library is at the Theosophical Society, Adyar.
Connemara Public Library
In March 1890, the foundation stone of this library was laid by Lord Connemara, the then Governor of Madras. In 1896 it was officially opened by Governor Arthur Elibunk Havelock. The library was named after him to honour him and his work. The library had an imposing tower of about 200 feet. It was demolished in 1897. From 1939 the library was declared as the District Head Library. Now, it is one of the four national depository libraries. It receives a copy of all books, newspapers and periodicals published in India. It has nearly 8,00,000 volumes, 3,500 periodicals and 160 news papers. The library is at Egmore next to the Museum.
Ranade Library
In 1904 the foundation stone was laid by Gopalakrishna Gokhale in Mylapore, the land for which was donated by Diwan Bahadur Raghunatha Rao. In 1905 it was opened to the public. Gokhale, who was a close friend of V .Krishnaswami Iyer, came for the public Congress meeting at Madras on Iyer’s invitation. In memory of Gokhale the first floor was named ‘Gokhale Hall’. This library functions on Luz Church Road.
U.VE Swaminatha Iyer Library
In memory of ( Tamizh Thatha ), Dr. U.Ve. Swaminatha Iyer, a library was started in the city. It has more than 25,000 books in Tamil, Sanskrit and English, and 2,300 palm leaf manuscripts. A rare collection of the collective information of literary index was compiled in 26 volumes. Iyer’s handwritten personal diaries, his teacher Kavimani Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai’s handwritten palm leaf manuscript, Iyer’s meanings and dictionary on the Tevaram are available here. Many rare Tamil texts are also in the library; it is very useful for Tamil researchers. It functions at Kalakshetra Colony, Besant Nagar. The collection of manuscripts will be available in microfilm and in digital versions soon.
Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute Library
Kuppuswami Sastri, who was a Sanskrit Professor of Presidency College, started the Institute in the year 1944 at Mylapore, in memory of Mahamahopadhyaya. It has a library of more than 60,000 books in Sanskrit, Tamil, English, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, and also in Japanese, German and French. The library also houses more than 1,500 palm leaf manuscripts and 50 paper manuscripts. The manuscripts collection was recently digitised. The National Mission for Manuscripts, Government of India, New Delhi recognised this Library as one of its Manuscripts Partner Centres. This academic library is helpful for students and researchers working on the Sanskrit language, Indology or history and other fields. This library is at Mylapore, inside the Sanskrit College Campus.
Maraimalai Adigal Library
Maraimalai Adigalar collected many books for his own research and named the collection ‘Manimozhi Noolagam’. According to his wishesthe ‘Saiva Siddhanta Nool Padippu Kazagam’ in 1958 started the Maraimalai Adigal Library at Parrys, after his death. It began with the collection of 4,500 books of Adigalar and with the collection of 5,000 books from Saiva Siddhanta Kazhagam. In 2008, this library was shifted to Connemara Library.