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Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Plans to Preserve Palm Leaf Manuscripts

In recent years, there have been several attempts to preserve palm leaf manuscripts containing vital information on Hinduism. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) now is planning to collect manuscripts from across India and digitize the manuscripts for posterity.

As part of its efforts, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams is organizing a national seminar on palm leaf manuscripts at Tirupati on November 17 and 18. Several eminent scholars and manuscriptologists are participating in the seminar.

It is estimated that there are more than half a million palm manuscripts in India and majority of them are in Sanskrit. This is the count of known manuscripts, no idea about the unknown manuscripts stored in temples, private houses and old government offices.

Most of the manuscripts are in a rotten state due to lack of maintenance. It must be remembered that ancient scholars had used a mixture of turmeric and oil to preserve the leaves for hundreds of years. This is one reason why the palm leaf manuscripts survived for such a long period.

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