PUNE, INDIA, September 22, 2011 (Times of India): Under the National Manuscripts Mission, a collection of around 40,000 manuscripts in Sanskrit are being digitized at the Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal. A team began work over a month ago. The work includes digitizing manuscripts from private sources in the city as well.
The process of digitization began at early August, and 550 manuscripts on Ayurveda were the first of the lot to be scanned and uploaded. “The 40,000 manuscripts run into several thousand pages, the digitization of which is to be completed within the next two years. So far, we have digitized 2,000 manuscripts,” said historian Mandar Lawate, who is coordinating this project with the NMM.
Dating back 600 years, the Sanskrit manuscripts pertain to various topics on Ayurveda, Puranas, Vedas, philosophy and art. For instance, ‘Shivlilamrut,’ ‘Pandav Pratap’ and ‘Hari Vijay’ authored by poet Shridhar, Eknathi Bhagwat, Sant Tukaram’s ‘gathas’ and ‘Dnyaneshwari,’ are some of the manuscripts which would be digitized soon.