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Showing posts from November 21, 2011


Rare Sanskrit Manuscripts to be restored by Cambridge University

2,000 rare Sanskrit manuscripts which belong to Cambridge University Library’s South Asian manuscript collection will be studied individually and digitised and put on the library’s new online service. The Sanskrit manuscripts detailing momentous political and economic events across south Asia are written on fragile birch bark, palm leaf and paper. The Hindu writes The university said the collection included “the oldest dated and illustrated Sanskrit manuscript known worldwide”. Dr Vincenzo Vergiani of the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, who along with his colleague Dr Eivind Kahrs will study the manuscripts, described them as “an invaluable and untapped source for understanding the pre-colonial past of South Asia, and therefore its present”. More than half of the library’s collection of south Asian manuscripts was in Sanskrit which dominated the literary culture of pre-modern South Asia for almost three millennia. “The word Sanskrit means refined or perfected. Fro

Chatti Amavasya

Chatti Amavasya is the no moon day in Kartik month as per traditional Kannada Calendar followed in Karnataka. The day is also significance to certain Hindu communities in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Chatti Amavasya 2024 date is December 1. The day is of importance to the Vishwakarma Samaj in Karnataka. A festival dedicated to Hindu God Vishwakarma, the divine architect of the universe, is observed on the day by certain Hindu communities. Those working in the field of carpentry, masonry and making a living with tools and machines observe the day. Special rituals and puja are held at the famous Shri Kalika Devi Temple at Sirsangi near Belgaum in Karnataka.