Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library:

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• The Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library is in the University of Kerala.
• It is one of the leading centres of Indological Studies in India.
• It is located in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum).
• It does research in fields connected with manuscripts.
• The department is microfilming the manuscripts of certain technical subjects.
• Ayilyam Thiruanl, Maharaja of Travancore ordered to collect all manuscripts in the state so as to be kept in the safe custody of the Palace Library.
• During early nineteen hundred Swathi Thirunal Maharaja, King of Travancore, published many of the manuscripts in the Palace Library and the manuscripts collection of ancient families.
• The Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library has over 70,000 works in 30,000 copies mainly of palm leaf manuscripts alogwith paper manuscripts, copper plates, writings on Bhurjapatra (birch bark), Agarutvak (the bark of Aquilaria malaccensis) and textiles etc.
• The manuscript collection also includes those belonging to other different Indian states and nations such as Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal etc.
• About eighty per cent of the collections are in Sanskrit.
• The manuscript collection of this department is an invaluable source for the study of ancient scripts as Grantha, Vattezhuttu, Sarada, Nandinagari, Grantha Tamil etc.
• The initial moulds of scripts of modern Indian languages like Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Oriya, Assamese and Burmese are also found.
• In 1908 T. Ganapati Sastri became the curator of this library.
• Sambasiva Sastri succeeded Ganapati Sastri as the curator of this library.
• Sambasiva Sastri wrote Citrabhyudaya Kavya about Travancore king.

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