Saturday, 25 August 2012

Saving Kautilya’s Arthashastra


It is very shocking to hear that the 450 years old palm-leaf manuscript of Kautilya’s Arthashastra which is now in Mysore’s Oriental Research Institute (ORI) is in highly neglected state.

As reported in Times of India, dated Aug 25, 2012, Mysore Edition, this manuscript, which is under the custodian of University of Mysore is the reproduction of the original work.

Thanks to Mr. Subbaiah who has taken initiative to preserve the only manuscript of Arthashastra by digitization. This may also help make reach this manuscript to those who are interested to read this.

An official in the ORI has stated that “If we get expertise in digitization, we are ready for it. Thanks, but why wait for somebody to come in? Are the officials not aware of the improvements in the technology? I could find millions of books, right from which are of no use to those which are most valuable being digitized and found on the internet.

However, digitization will save only the contents of the manuscript. Great care should be taken to preserve palm-leaf as well.   

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