DiPiKA – Digitisation and Preservation of Kerala Archives

2023–2028

The project aims at preserving the rich and highly endangered written cultural heritage of Kerala. It surveys and digitises palm-leaf and paper manuscripts kept in private collections across the state. The digitised collections will be fed into a digital repository, thus forming an online archive of Kerala manuscripts that will be openly accessible. This will facilitate its use by scholars and private owners, thereby also fostering further local initiatives to safeguard historical written artefacts.

DiPiKA is a collaboration between the Vadakke Madham Brahmaswam (Vedic Research Centre) in Thrissur, the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO, Paris and Pondicherry), the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML, Collegeville, Minnesota), and the CSMC. The project is funded by Arcadia for a period of five years.

Objectives

The main goal of DiPiKA is to establish a digital archive of Kerala manuscripts. This involves various aspects, namely

• producing an extensive survey of Kerala private manuscript collections;
• establishing a fully equipped digital hub at the Kerala Manuscript Preservation Centre (KMPC) in Thrissur for the immediate digitisation of manuscript collections and preliminary preservation of artefacts;
• training the project team members in preservation techniques, digitising, cataloguing, and standardisation of metadata;
• ensuring the perennial conservation of the images and open access;
• organising regular workshops on preservation techniques for palm-leaf manuscripts at the KMPC in Thrissur; and
• developing strategies that will allow the Centre’s activities to continue in the future, beyond the five-year project.

The Kerala Manuscript Preservation Centre (KMPC)

The KMPC was established in 2022. The Vadakke Madham Brahmaswam has provided two large rooms for this purpose on its premises in Thrissur. They were renovated and fully equipped in 2022 with financial support of the CSMC. The rooms are used for storing manuscripts in a climate-controlled environment and for digitising and preserving the artefacts. The KMPC also offers workplaces for scholars.

Digitisation

The digitisation and compilation of metadata in the context of this project follow HMML’s standards. Depending on the wishes of the collection owners and the physical condition of the manuscripts, the project offers two modes for digitisation:

• digitisation at KMPC in Thrissur through temporary relocation of the manuscripts to the Thrissur archive, and return to the owners after complete digitisation and constitution of the metadata; or
• digitisation on the spot by a mobile team. This procedure consists of two phases: one taking place on-site, where the manuscripts are digitised and basic descriptions of the artefacts are prepared; and a second one taking place at the KMPC in Thrissur, where the data is uploaded to the common database and the basic descriptions from the field are elaborated to full metadata based on the digital images.

Kerala Manuscripts Network

A continuous dialogue between the staff of the KMPC and collection owners will be the basis for bringing more attention to the significance of the region’s cultural heritage, further enhanced by regular visits to the Centre from students from local schools, colleges, and universities. Over the course of the project, workshops, seminars, and other promoting events will be organised at the KMPC. These events will also foster collaboration with major institutions in the region, such as the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit in Kalady or the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library (ORIMSS) at the University of Kerala.

The official inauguration of DiPiKA took place on 7 January 2024. Officials from the Kerala regional government and EFEO, a number of private collection owners, as well as about 40 students of Manuscriptology from various universities took part in this event. The opening ceremony was combined with an academic event on Kerala manuscript cultures and the handing over of the digital images of the Vadakke Madham Brahmaswam collection, which had been completely digitised in the course of a previous project with financial support from Arcadia as part of the British Library's Endangered Archives Program (EAP).