CHENNAI, INDIA, June 7, 2007: A funds crunch has come in the way of the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute’s project to preserve thousands of old manuscripts and books. Such preservation initiatives are important for the over-six-decade old Institute at Madras Sanskrit College, Mylapore, as it serves as a reference library for researchers and scholars. The collection at the Institute includes around 50,000 books in Sanskrit and books on oriental research and learning and Indological studies. It is also home to journals in several Indian and foreign languages, besides 1,000 manuscripts in Grantham, Tamil and Sanskrit dating back to 500 to 600 years.
Run on public donations, the Institute is finding it difficult to mobilize enough funds to sustain its activities. According to Institute director V. Kameswari, with the limited resources, only half of the salary could be paid to the seven staffers. Describing the Institute as the only library of its kind in South India, she pointed out that renowned persons, including former President S. Radhakrishnan, have donated rare books to it. Maintenance of the collection, however, has become difficult in the absence of adequate funds. The books are getting brittle day by day, she said, pointing out that photocopying and microfilming them were costly. “A library such as this will be useful when there are patent issues over things such as basmati and turmeric…[serving as a] source for authentic documentary support from ancient texts,” Dr. Kameswari said. It needs resources to air-condition the room stocking the manuscripts and to meet the recurring electricity cost.
Donations to the Institute are eligible for 100 percent income tax exemption. The Institute, which used to receive Central funding till 1995, was once again contemplating to seek similar support. The reader membership fee at the library is US$1.22 a year. After a year of this membership, the readers become eligible for a life membership by paying US$24.50 during which they are allowed to borrow books. Dr. Kameswari said that the ‘sponsor-a-book’ program was available under which donors could pay US$24.50 for a 200-page book to be laminated.