Epigraphs to be digitised

Thanjavur, June 1: The Tamil University will undertake the digitisation of about 1.20 lakh epigraphs in various languages, including 60,000 Tamil epigraphs preserved by the epigraph division of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Mysore.

Tamil University vice-chancellor, Dr M. Rajendran, held discussions with ASI epigraph division director T. S. Ravishankar and deputy superintendent S. Swaminathan at the varsity on Monday.

Later, talking to reporters, Dr Rajendran said the university initially approached the ASI epigraph division to digitise the 60,000 Tamil epigraphs persevered by the agency but the ASI requested it to take up the digitisation of about 1.20 lakh epigraphs in various languages, including Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada, preserved by it.

“The Tamil University will also launch a collection of Tamil manuscripts from June 3, the birthday of chief minister M. Karunanidhi. According to the statistics provided by the National Mission for Manuscripts, there are 5,48,134 manuscripts available with various persons in the 30 districts of Tamil Nadu. To begin with, Tamil University will collect the manuscripts available in Thanjavur district,” Dr Rajendran said. The university is also ready to pay Rs 2 per manuscript. Even if the people are reluctant to part with the manuscripts, we will just copy them, he added.

On June 5, a seminar for Singapore and Malaysian writers will be held here. A delegation of 55 Tamil scholars will take part in it. On June 6, Karikalan Awards will be presented to Singapore writer Murugadiyan and Malaysian writer P. Chandrakantham.