03-Dec-2024
GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADUGovernment Oriental Manuscripts Library, CHENNAI
03-Dec-2024
From such small beginnings, the GOVERNMENT ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS LIBRARY, MADRAS, has grown to its present dimensions and it possesses 71180 manuscripts in the following languages:
| Language | Palm leaf | Paper manuscripts | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tamil | 10783 | 5775 | 16558 |
| Sanskrit | 38282 | 11473 | 49755 |
| Telugu | 806 | 1426 | 2232 |
| Kannada | 182 | 72 | 254 |
| Marathi | -- | 967 | 967 |
| Urdu | -- | 184 | 184 |
| Arabic | -- | 407 | 407 |
| Persian | -- | 1396 | 1396 |
| Oriya, Pali, Sinhala, Burmese | 127 | -- | 127 |
| Local records | -- | 434 | 434 |
| Total | 50180 | 22134 | 72314 |
Consequent on the formation of linguistic States in our country about 7,000 manuscripts in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam were transferred to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala respectively. Apart from this 25373 printed books are available for reference in the Library as given below
| Language | Printed books |
|---|---|
| Tamil | 5442 (3912) |
| Sanskrit | 7320 |
| Telugu | 1875 |
| Kannada | 700 |
| Marathi | 137 |
| Malayalam | 444 |
| Arabic | 230 |
| Perrsian | 265 |
| Urdu | 705 |
| English | 6926 |
| European Languages | 194 |
| Hindi | 130 |
| Descriptive Catalogues | 805 |
| Dictionaries | 182 |
| Bengali | 18 |
| Total | 25373 |