Deccan Herald October 7, 2006

Madhva’s palm leaves get a digital touch

By B K Ganesh DH News Service Bangalore

Modern imaging technology has now come to the rescue of a 700-year-old palm leaf manuscript of “Sarvamoola Grantha” of Madhva-charya, proponent of Dvaitha philosophy.

Modern imaging technology has now come to the rescue of a 700-year-old palm leaf manuscript of “Sarvamoola Grantha” of Madhva-charya, proponent of Dvaitha philosophy.

The collection of 36 works containing commentaries in Sanskrit, which was lying in a wooden box of Udupi’s Palimaru Mutt, is now being digitally stored forever.

A team led by Dr P R Mukund and Roger Easton, professors in the Rochester Institute, US, is working on the project since December, 2005. Sri Vidyadheesha Swamiji of Udupi Palimaru Mutt inspired Dr Mukund to use the modern technology to preserve the manuscript for the future generations.

According to Dr Mukund, a native of Bangalore and follower of Dvaitha philosophy, the palm-leaf manuscripts were in very bad condition and it was almost impossible to read or hold them together. It was a challenging task for the team to digitally store the 304 pages of damaged manuscript.

They first did imaging of the manuscript using a scientific digital camera and an infrared filter to enhance the contrast between the ink and the palm leaf. Images of each palm leaf, were captured in eight to 10 sections, processed and digitally stitched together, explained Dr Mukund.

The digital images of the “Sarvamoola Grantha” will be stored in a variety of formats, including electronically published books and on silicon wafers for long-term preservation, he said pointing out that “preservation of a manuscript in silicon wafer format is first of its kind in the world.”

Following the success of this project, Dr Mukund is now making efforts to preserve other Dvaitha manuscripts, approximately about 800 palm-leaf manuscripts, which are in the custody of Udupi’s eight mutts, in the digital image format.

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