B.M. Shri Pratishtana as an Historical museum of Manuscripts

Establishment of the Organisation, Information about the founder, Collection of Manuscripts, Types of Palm leaves , Number of Palm leaves writings collected in B.M.Shri Pratishtana in various languages, Miscellaneous inscriptions which invoke Palm leaves writings, Method of preserving the Palm leaves manuscripts at B.M.Shri Pratishtana, Photos of the method of preserving the Palm leaf Manuscripts at B.M.Shri Pratishtana, Important Historical Palm leaves manuscripts in B.M.Shri Pratishtana with Images, Method of Digitizing the palm leaves manuscripts at B.M.Shri Pratishtana, Images of the machines used for Digitizing the Palm leaf manuscripts, Conclusion, Bibliography

1. “ B.M. Shri Pratishtana As an Historical museum of Manuscripts” Dessertation to be submitted to the Department of History, Bengaluru City University for the partial fulfilment for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in History By Akshaya.C ( Register Number : HS200601 ) Under the Guidance of Dr. V. Kantharaju BENGALURU CITY UNIVERSITY Central College Campus, Dr.Ambedkar Veedhi Bengaluru – 560001

2. CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the dessertation entitled B.M. Shri Pratishtana as an Historical museum of manuscripts Is a bonafied research work done by Sri. AKSHAYA.C , Register number: HS200601 under the guidance of Dr. V. Kantharaju . Towards the attainment of His/Her Master of Arts 2020-2022 (History) for the Bengaluru City University, is here by accepted. Guide(Name) Accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History, Bengaluru City University, Bengaluru-01 Date : Place : Chairperson

3. B.m. sHri pratishtana As an Historical museum of manuscripts

4. CONTENT Establishment of the Organisation or Trust Collection of Manuscripts Types of Palm leaves Types of collection in Palm leaf manuscripts Collection of Palm leaf manuscripts in various languages Miscellaneous inscriptions which invoke Palm leaf writings Method of preserving the Palm leaves manuscripts Important and special historical palm leaf manuscripts in B.M Shri Pratishtana Method of digitalizing the Palm leaves manuscripts Conclusion Bibliography

5. Introduction Bangalore is an famous city not only in India , it is famous across the world , for its environment, climate, facilities, trade and commerce, science and technology. Bangalore is also known as “Silicon valley or Silicon city” because of the existence of multinational companies. Bangalore as a Capital city of Karnataka has its own significance as a power centre, cultural hub because today in Bangalore we can see most people are from the other states of India. This is because of its geographical location , Climate and other economic activities which are attracting the people from different regions . Bangalore is situated in the Southeast of South India at the state of Karnataka. It is positioned at 12.97˚N 77.56˚E. It covers an area of 2,190 square kilometres (850 sq mi). It is located at the Deccan plateau and it is 3,020 feet above the sea level (839-962 m). Hence in this famous city , there are number of organisations and institutions of learning, among them is an Trust called B.M. Shri Pratishtana , which is an manuscriptology museum , it preserves ancient Palm leaf manuscripts and also digitizes it for future use. And this trust is located in N.R.colony at Bangalore. The purpose of choosing this title is , in Indian History our ancestors have recorded the ancient works in the form of Palm leaves manuscripts, tree barks, cloths, and they preserved them very well , but due to change in time people have forgotten about the ancient palm leaf manuscripts and the method of preserving it .

6. As an History student I was very eager to know about the Palm leaves manuscripts , the way it looks, the carvings of the letters, and the method of preserving it . I felt that each and every History student should know this information, hence with help of my Guide, I found this trust which is located in N.R.colony at Bangalore. This B.M. Shri Pratishtana is doing a very good job by collecting all the Palm leaves manuscripts from in and around Bangalore. It is not only collecting and preserving it ,they are also digitizing it for future use. This is the purpose of choosing this title as my project in History and computing paper. I had a very nice experience by doing this project. It was a great field work for me. To collect the information about palm leaves manuscripts I went to the trust ,took the permission of the authorities over there and collected all the information about the methods of preserving the palm leaves manuscripts and about the trust. It took two months to gather all the information ,because the authorities in at the trust were very busy in their scheduled works, and they asked me to visit the trust on weekends that is on Saturday and Sunday . Every weekends I spent 4-5 hours to gather the information. They showed me the method of preserving the palm leaves writings, the way they apply essential oils and many other process , to see that it was an mesmerizing moment for me. Hence this was an great field work as an History student by spending time and learning, in the trust and communicating with the authorities in the trust.

7. B.M. Shri Pratishtana Located at : B.M.Shri Pratishtana road , 3 rd main road , N arasimharaja colony , Bangalore- 560019

8. This is the Manuscriptology Department in B.M. Shri Prathistana , it is named as Timmappa dasa prachina hastaprati sangrahalaya. It is an resource centre recognised by National mission for manuscript and one of the main wing of Pratishtana . It is an manuscriptology museum, named after a great Haridasa saint, he is even called as Timmappa dasa . This person is the forefather of M.V.Seetharamaiah. They have established this in the name of that person because, most of the manuscripts available in the Pratishtana is written by him.

9. I. Establishment of the B.M.Shri Pratishtana as a organisation or trust : BM Shri Pratishtana was established on May 6th 1979 by professor M.V S eetharamaiah. It was inaugurated by R ashtrakavi Kuvempu on 10th March 1980 . This organisation or trust was named B.M Shri P ratishtana because Acharya B.M . Srikantaiah had the thought of establishing and organisation or trust to preserve the palm leaf manuscripts all over the India. In 1911 B. M. Srikantaiah gave his wordict as "To store all the scriptures in the country that are not eaten by worms and mold them so as not to leave a single one, to search everything on the mold and to create new characteristic scriptures according to time".

10. Hence he wanted to establish a trust or organisation but due to some reasons he couldn't establish. H ence after his death his student professor M.V S eetharamaiah established this organisation under the name of his teacher B.M Shri and named the organisation as B.M Shri P ratishtana. First they couldn't build the organisation because they did not have land to build it , so M.V S eetharamaiah established the organisation at his home. After getting a land the established this organisation in 1979 . Nittor Srinivas Rao was the first President of this B.M Shri P ratishtana . B.M Shri P ratishtana is an three storied building, at ground floor it has a library for research students, first floor it has the manuscript museum, second floor it has classes for the research students.

11. Before going to know more about B.M.Shri Pratishtana let us know brief information about B.M. Shri. Belluru Mylaraiah Srikantaiah is his full name . He was born on 3 January 1884. He  was an Indian author, writer and translator of Kannada literature . Prominent Students are : V. Seetharamaiah and K . V. Puttappa His Works are : Gadayuddha Natakam  ( ಗದಾಯುದ್ಧ ನಾಟಕಂ) ( play) Aswatthaaman ( ಅಶ್ವತ್ಥಾಮನ್ ) ( Play) Honganasugalu ( ಹೊಂಗನಸುಗಳು ) ( Poetry ) He died on 5 January 1946 .

12. B. M. Srikantaiah

13. M.V S eetharamaiah

14. His full name is Mysore Venkatadasappa Seetharamiah. He is even known as M. V. See . He was born on 9 September 1910 . He died on 12 March 1990. M.V.Seetharamaiah is one of the famous writer in Kannada language, who authored, edited and translated number of books. Throughout his career, he has published over 100 books like short stories, poetry, novels, and dramas. Some of his famous works are Sri Vijaya kruta Kavirajamarga, a retelling of the classical Kavirajamarga , Udayadityalankara a work on Kannada poetics, and also other works on ancient Kannada language grammar. Seetharamaiah got  Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award, Rajyotsava Prashasti, and  Kannada Sahitya Parishat Award for his contributions to Kannada literature. He also set up the Bangalore based B. M. Shri Pratishtana , an organization focused on advancing Kannada language literary studies. Among his major contributions , one of them include the establishing authorship of Kavirajamarga , he noted that the author of this work was Sri Vijaya and Nrupatunga, the Rashtrakuta emperor was mainly credited with approving the content. He re-wrote Kavirajamarga and it was titled Sri Vijaya kruta Kavirajamarga . Seetharamaiah established B. M. Shri. Pratishtana in 1979 , it is a research organization which focuses on the advancement of Kannada language literary studies and research, it is located in Bangalore. The organization was named after his teacher B. M. Srikantaiah. In 2009, the organization developed into an research center and it is affiliated with  Hampi University  it even offers  M. Phil and PhD degrees .  

15.   II. Collection of manuscripts in B.M.Shri Pratishtana BM Shri Pratishthana has collection of the manuscripts from outskirts of Bangalore, it may be from different states , districts and different cities . Once they collect the manuscripts they bring it to the organization and start the cleaning process for the palm leaf manuscripts. O nce the finish the cleaning process they start preparing Codex by deciphering it. First they find out what is the manuscript about, whether it is an historical manuscript or it belongs to the literary world, then the segregate it into different sections and then they take historical manuscripts T hey start studying it in detail, they make note of the page numbers of the palm leaves and the content in it, they do this because they would have got many copies of the same Palm leaves manuscripts.

16. After preparing the codex they send it to National mission for manuscript, to make a record. They even collect Copper plate inscriptions . They preserve, decipher and record it. Old paper manuscripts which are more than hundred years old are also collected and conserved in this museum. For example: Bakta Kanakadasa had written Nalla damyanti it is even called Nala Champu , this was originally written by Kanakadasa in 16 century. During that time many people liked reading the stories and wanted the copy of the same story in their houses. Hence they with the help of writers they made copies of the original Palm leaf manuscripts which was written by Kanakadasa .

17. So while collecting this manuscripts BM Sri pratishthana collected many copies of Nala Champu (Palm leaf manuscript) and now they have three copies of this N ala Damayanti . B y this we get to know it is very tough to collect the original manuscripts which is written by the original author. S o the method of collecting the manuscripts are : 1. F ield work 2. Collect the palm leaf manuscripts 3. I nventory 4.The preservation method 5.Create the codex 6.They write about the manuscript in indicative method ( single line index ) or descriptive method 7.They store it in a safe wardrobe or trunk box . With the collection Palm leaf manuscripts BM.Shri Pratishtana has the collection of copper plate inscriptions , old paper manuscripts, kadatha (this famous in sri Sringeri this is used in Sringeri temple for financial records it is written in balapa on cloth), Decorated illustrated paper manuscripts ( depicting incidence or events of Ramayana and Mahabharata). The total number of Palm leaf manuscripts the have collected is 1330 in total.

18. Meaning of Palm-leaf manuscript Palm-leaf manuscripts  are  manuscripts  made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia  which dates back to the 5th century BCE.  The use of Palm leaves began in South Asia and spread to other regions, as wrote on dried and smoke-treated palm leaves of  Palmyra palm  or the  T alipot palm . The life of a palm leaf is maximum 300-600 years.   The use of these palm leaves continued till the 19th century, during the end of 19 th century printing press replaced hand-written manuscripts.

19. III. Types of Palm leaves Palmyra palm : Its botany name is Borassus Bellafara   . It is a genus of five species of fan palms, it grows in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Papua New Guinea . This palm has a thine leaves . In Kannada we call it as Plamira Talegari . Talipot palm : Its Botany name is Corypha umbraculifera. It is a species of palm  which grows in eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also grown in Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Thailand and the Andaman Islands. It is a flowering plant with the largest inflorescence in the world. It lives up to 60 years . In Kannada it is called Talipot Talegari or Shree Tale .

20. Betula utilis : It is known as  Himalayan birch. In Sanskrit it is called   bhurjapatra (Sanskrit word : bhurja), It is a deciduous tree which grows in Western Himalayas, growing at elevations up to 4,500 m (14,800 feet). The white, paper-like bark was used in ancient times for writing Sanskrit scriptures and texts. It is still used as paper for the writing of sacred mantras, with the bark placed in an amulet and worn for protection. Selected varieties are used for landscaping throughout the world, even while some areas of its native habitat are being lost due to overuse of the tree for firewood. Birch bark manuscripts  are documents written on pieces of the inner layer of birch bark, which was commonly used for writing before the advent of mass production of paper. Evidence of birch bark for writing goes back many centuries .

21. Palmyra palm

22.   Himalayan birch

23. IV. Types of collection in Palm leaf manuscripts I n Veda manuscripts we find all type of Vedas, Samhita , U pnishad , Mantras , A ranyakam , B rahmaniam . In V edangam we can find Dharma Sutra, gruhe prayoga . Smruti we find nibandh granthalu vruta , Granth aagalu In history manuscripts we find Puranas , G ita, M ahatmagalu etc . In Purana manuscripts we find U pakyagalu . In kavyam we find Stotram padya Kavya , G adya Kavya , Champu Kavya , Natakagalu , K hate etc. Chandra Shastra A lankara Shastra

24. Shilpa Sastra Vyakaran Jyotishya Vidya Shastra Jain Grantha Agar magalu Arthshastra

25. V. When these Palm leaves became an object of writing material across India, intellectuals started to present their ideas on these. So Palm leaf manuscripts became popular. In this B.M.Shri Pratishtana they have collection of Palm leaf manuscripts in various languages, the following are the languages and scripts : Manuscripts are written in Kannada language and the script is in Sanskrit. Manuscripts are written in Sanskrit and the script is in Kannada. Manuscripts are written in Sanskrit language and the script is in Devanagari , in B.M Shri P ratishtana there are 85 no of these type. Manuscripts are written in Sanskrit language and the script is in Nandini Nagari , in B.M Shri P ratishtana there are 120 scripts of these type.

26. Manuscripts are written in Kannada language and the script is in Kannada, in B.M Shri Pratishtana there are 570 scripts of these type. Manuscripts are written in Telugu language and the script is in Telugu , in B.M Shri Pratishtana there are 36 manuscripts of these type . Manuscripts are written in Sanskrit language and the script is in Telugu , in B.M Shri P ratishtana there are 38 manuscripts of these type. Manuscripts are written in Sanskrit language and the script is in T igalari , in B.M Shri Pratishtana there are 63 manuscripts of these type.

27. VI. Miscellaneous inscriptions which invoke Palm leaf writings Belagavi inscription which dates back to 1028 AD, mentions about a palm leaf bundle in which tax accounts were written i n Palm leaves. A tritise on Hamara kosha by Vitala is written on Palm leaf manuscripts and it dates back to 1131 AD. A travel from Arab albaruni refers to Palm leaf manuscripts in 10th century AD. Italy Traveller by name Peter Dallavale has mention that he took some sample of manuscripts to Italy.

28. Causes for the deteriorating of Palm leaf manuscripts 1 . Aging of manuscript 2. Exposure to light 3. Improper handling 4. Insufficient budget 5. Insects and pests 6. Natural disasters like fire accident man made disasters theft extra 7. Unfavorable conditions for storage

29. VII. Method of preserving the palm leaves manuscripts in form of a flow chart

30. Process of preservation of palm leaves manuscripts First on a clean table they place the palm leaves, then they take a clean new brush and start the brush cleaning process after brush cleaning, they take a Dabber and they take surgical spirit in a bowl, then the dip the Dabber in the surgical spirit and they start applying and cleaning the palm leaves, after applying the surgical spirit they leave it to dry for 3 minutes after the palm leaves gets derived, then they take essential oils in a bowl and with help of a dabber they apply it on the palm leaves. The essential oils are : Citronella oil, Turmeric oil, Basil oil and Neem oil. Basically they apply only three oils that is Citronella oil, Turmeric oil, and Basil oil . Neem oil is optional, if the palm leaves have insects on it, then they apply Neem oil. After applying the essential oils they leave it to dry for 2 to 3 days, even during the drying of the palm leaves the sunlight should not fall on the palm leaf directly. After the drying process, again the keep the palm leaf manuscripts on a neat table, then they take Diamond black powder in a bowl with help of another new Dabber they apply it on the palm leaf neatly and evenly, so that the carvings of the letters on the palm leaves will be visible.

31. After applying the Diamond powder they leave it for further cleaning and drying for 2 to 3 days. After it gets dried, according to the page numbers of the palm leaf they arrange it in the order with the help of the wooden blocks they cover the palm leaves on the front and at the back, then they take red cotton cloth and wrap it around the palm leaves neatly so that the sunlight must not pass through them. After wrapping it with the red cotton cloth they take a cotton thread and tie it with the thread in even pressure around it. Then they keep the single line codex prepared by them on it and then they arrange it neatly in the shelf. Hence this is the method of preserving the palm leaf manuscripts by B.M Shri Pratishtana.

32. Method of preserving the palm leaves manuscripts in form of Photographs

33. Brush Cleaning

34. A video on Brush cleaning process

35. Cleaning with surgical spirit with the help of a Dabber

36. Applying Essential oils

37. Essential oils are Citronella oil, Turmeric oil , Basil oil , and Neem oil

38. Drying of Palm leaves after applying essential oils

39. Inking with Diamond Black powder

40. Applying the Diamond Black powder

41. Passing on the inked manuscripts to the checking person

42. Continuing the inking process for other leaves

43. Further inking process

44. Checking the applied Diamond Black powder on the Palm leaf manuscript

45. We can see the inked words on the manuscript

46. Arranging the Palm leaf manuscript in order according to its page number

47. Tying the Palm leaf manuscript with cotton thread and covering it in wooden slide block front and back

48. Tying it in even pressure, around the palm leaves manuscripts

49. Tying a easy removable knot

50. Index written in Indicative method ( Single line index ) and it is waiting for cloth packing

51. Palm leaf manuscripts neatly packed in red cotton cloth and it is ready for arranging it in the shelfs

52. Image of Tools used for preservation of Palm leaves manuscript, we can see the tools like Magnifying glass, scissors, scale, screw driver, thread, brush, plain glass, dabber, stylus(inscribing nibs), knife.

53. VIII. Some of the important and special historical palm leaf manuscripts in B.M Shri Pratishtana Krishnadevaraya D inachari a dairy of the king Krishnadevaraya from Vijayanagara dynasty this is written by his close associate Muku T imayya and M adaiyanavara M allaiyya , it is about the Sri Krishnadevaraya’s daily routine during war camp, it belongs to 16 century. Kannada bagavata by C . T . Vittalanatha . In 1530-1542 ,280 cantons,12235 poems it contains. Nala charite 9 cantons 481 poems by Bhakta Kanakadasa at 16th century .

54. Image of Sri Krishnadevaraya Dinachari manuscript , written by his close associate Mukkutimayya , he has written about the daily routine of Krishnadevaraya in war camp. It can be dated back to 16 th century.

55. B.M.Shri Pratishtana has the biggest manuscript, which is about 3 and half feet long that is Kannada bhagavata written by Nityatrunatha, it is written in Bhamini shatpadi shayli , it contains 409 pages.

56. Smallest manuscript in B.M.Shri P ratishtana is S hakuna Shastra which is about 4 inch in size, it contains 44 pages.

57. An image of palm leaf manuscript which is written in Nandi Nagari Language

58. A picture of Valmiki Ramayana manuscripts written in Tigalari text in Sanskrit language.

59. We can see that this manuscript is covered in ivory , which is made up of elephant tusk .

60. Image of Mudramanjusha manuscript ,written in Kannada text and language , by Sri.Kempunarayana , in the year 1823 , this is the first Historical Novel in Kannada language. It contains 209 pages . This was donated by Lalitha nadig .

61. A picture of Kadatha manuscript , it is made up of cloth , this is used in Sringeri for recording the financial records.

62. An image of Decorative manuscript , it is called Sanchi pattra , these type of manuscript is written in Assam, Odisha and Tripura.

63. Image of Birch bark manuscript

64. An image of Decorated paper manuscript in Oriya language from Orissa

65. Image of Kori paper manuscript , this is an Land grant agreement belonged to the King Ramaraya of Vijayanagara Dynasty.

66. It is stored in Bamboo shoot

67. Picture of Paper manuscript it is about Ramayana it dates back 1826

68. Image of Valmiki Ramayana manuscript , it contains 309 pages, donated by gokale sarvajanika vichara samaste .

69. Image of classified shelf of palm leaves manuscripts in B.M. Sri Pratishtana

70.   IX. Method of digitizing the palm leaf manuscripts B.M.Shri Pratishtana is not only preserving the manuscript Palm Leaf manuscripts in traditional method ,they are even digitizing it in the modern technological method so that it can be accessed after many years. The Machines used by the organisation are small flat bed scanner and hand held scanner. An volunteer organization helps B.M.Shri P ratishtana to digitize the palm leaf manuscripts. The name of the organization is Indo Script Raksha Trust .

71. Small flat bed scanner

72. Hand held scanner

73. Epson DS 63 model Flat bed scanner

74. X. Conclusion It was a great experience for me in doing this project , as an History student I was very curious in knowing about , how do they preserve Palm leaves manuscripts , so with help of my guide I got to know about an Trust which is preserving Palm leaves manuscripts , hence I went there took the permission of the authorities over there and collected all the information about the preservation of palm leaves and about the trust. It took two months to gather all the information , and I was visiting the trust on weekends that is on Saturday and Sunday. It was an great field work as an History student . I thank the Department of History and my guides for giving me this opportunity for doing project .

75. XI. Bibliography www.bmshri.org Field work Interview with the chief of the institution

76. THANK YOU