Digital Preservation of Madhva Literature of Original Palm Leaves in Madhva Mathas in India

December 13, 2006

Dear Sri Hari Bhaktas,

It is with the blessings of Sri Hari, Vayu, Gurugalu, we are bringing to the kind attention of our fellow devotees an excellent opportunity to provide our support, however humble it may be, to the cause of digital preservation of ancient Madhva literature available in original palm leaves in various mathas in Udupi. Professor Mukund in the Department of Electrical Engineering and his dedicated team of excellent technical American experts in the Center for Imaging Sciences in Rochester Institute of Technology in the US have successfully accomplished in two trips to India the initial phase of the project by completing the degitization of the original Sarvamoola Granthas of Sri Madhvacharya preserved in Palimaru Matha in Udupi. This effort was widely covered in the print media in the US and other countries and received much acclaim.

Professor Mukund and his team are embarking to extend the project for digital preservation of 800 more palm leaf manuscripts in the eight mathas in Udupi. In addition, this team wishes to explore this technology for preservation of manuscripts in other Madhva mathas and other ancient Vaishnava literature as well. Professor Mukund and his team have also received encouraging communication from the Executive Officer of Thiumala Thirupati Devasthanams for housing the printed copies of the digitally preserved manuscripts in a new exclusive " Vaishnava Wing " in the SV Central Library in Thirupati for the use of scholars.

Vishva Madhva Sangha will be happy to collect financial contributions for this noble cause and pass on the collection to the Palm Leaf Project in Rochester Institute Of Technology. Please come forward and provide your support. Even small humble contributions could help since small drops make the flood. Please mail your checks payable to Vishva Madhva Sangha (VMS) and mail to our treasurer Sri Sathya at the following address:

M.S. Sathyanarayana

20217 Las Ondas Way

Cupertino, CA 95014

Your contributions are US Federal Tax exempt since VMS is a non-profit tax exempt organization. Our treasurer Sri Sathya will mail receipts to the contributors after receiving their checks.

Professor Mukund is copied in this e-mail and VMS requests Professor Mukund to make postings in this VMS List to provide additional information to augment this fund-drive.

Hare Srinivasa

Bindu

March 21, 2007

|| Shri HariH Om || Dear Haribhaktas, By the grace of Shri Hari, Vayu, Gurugalu on this auspicious day in the begining of SarvajitnAma Samvatsara (varshada voduku?? - very auspicious one - the day after ChandramAna Ugadi - the belief is, any good deeds done today propagates to the rest of the year) and the auspicious day of the UttarAradhane of Shri 1008 Shri Purushottama theertharu

(gurgalu of Shri 1008 Shri Brahmanya theertharu, Abburu), VMS is very glad to announce that a donation in the amount of $5551 was made to Rochester Institute of Technology for the project "Digital Preservation of Madhva Literature of Original Palm Leaves" spearheaded by Prof. Dr. P. R. Mukund. This was made possible by the generous donation of VMS members. Also pasted below is the status report on the project from Dr. Mukund's side. I want to make this an on going fund raising from VMS, as there is lot of work left to be done, need lot of resources and financial assistance. If you are interested in making a contribution please send it to me, I will consolidate and send it to RIT. The details of address and payable information is forwared

below in Dr. Bindu Madhvan's email. Let us pray for Shri Hari, Vayu, Gurugalu to bless us in this effort to preserve the original manuscripts of our Jagadguru Shri Madhvacharyaru and other granthas/puranas. on behalf of VMS, Sathya **************************************************************************************************************************************Preservation of Ancient Hindu Literature Inscribed on Palm Leaves Dr. P. R. Mukund1, Dr. Roger L. Easton2 1 Department of Electrical Engineering 2 Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science 79 Lomb Memorial Drive, 254 Lomb Memorial drive, Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, New York 14623 Email: prmeee, easton It is well

known that India has been a repository for knowledge about various aspects of life such as philosophy, medicine, science, and the arts. Among the various scholars and spiritual leaders in India during the last millennium, Shri Madvacharya (1238-1317) had a profound impact on the society. His philosophy, known as Tattva-vada, had analyzed all aspects of the holy texts such as Vedas, Upanishads, Itihasas, Purana, Tantras and Prakaranas and showed the structure of the spiritual world that serves as a backbone of the diversities of this world. This insightful knowledge demonstrated to mankind the meaning of life and the importance of logic and faith in God. As a result, preservation of this collection called Sarvamoola grathna for future generations is essential. The original manuscripts of this school of thought were written on palm leaves. The leaves were prepared by drying and polishing. The characters were then incised using a metal stylus and filled

with ink. Although the sizes of the palm leaves often varied, the average dimensions are approximately 19 inches in length by 2 inches in width. The thicknesses of these bundles varied considerably, ranging from one leaf to stacks of 200 leaves. These manuscripts were stored at various mathas which were located in and around a coastal town of Udupi in the southern part of the Indian state of Karnataka. Unfortunately, over time many of the original manuscripts were lost or were badly damaged due to deterioration of the palm leaves. Many leaves are cracked and small pieces have been chipped off from many places. The deterioration is due to the age of the manuscripts and inappropriate storage that resulted in staining, mechanical damage, splitting and cleavage of the palm leaves. As a result, the manuscripts are very brittle and difficult to handle without further damage. The palm leaves also have darkened over time and are now dark brown in color. Since

the characters were incised in black, the contrast between text and background has been reduced to the point where the contrast is poor, making the manuscript very difficult to read with the naked eye. The poor condition of these priceless manuscripts prompted the researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology to use modern imaging techniques to preserve this document. The scientists traveled to India in December 2005 to assess the document stored at Phalimaru matha in Udupi, India. Sponsored by a grant from RIT, the team returned to the monastery in June and spent six days imaging the document using a scientific digital camera and an infrared filter to enhance the contrast between the ink and the palm leaf. Images of each palm leaf, back and front, were captured in eight to 10 sections, processed and digitally stitched together. The scientists ran the 7,900 total images through various image-processing algorithms using Adobe Photoshop and Knox's

own custom software. Successful completion of this project resulted in an extensive world-wide publicity. News articles were published in over 25 newspapers and websites. Some of the links are listed below. www.physorg.com/news77908116.html www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=327570 & sid=FTP www.livescience.com/history/060919_hindu_text.html www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060919102046.htm www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/information_technology/report-70856.html www.hindustantimes.com/news/5967_1802119,001600060001.htm www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14910818/ www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/oct72006/state191812006106.asp www.publicradio.org/columns/futuretense/2006/09/index.shtml www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20060920/bl_line20.art.htm This publicity gave way to a very interesting development. Apparently in the 1980\u2019s, Professor Charles S.J. White of American University, under the umbrella of the bakthi movement, got a grant from the Simthsonian Institute to preserve Vaishanva literature.

Professor White traveled the length and breadth of India and has microfilmed over 150,000 pages of manuscript. He had gifted this entire collection to the researchers at RIT in the hope that this collection would be made available to all scholars across the world. This development has lead to the second stage of the project. With the generous support from RIT in terms of space and other resources, the investigators are in the process of extracting and processing the images from the microfilms. The processed images shall be archived electronically as well as two sets of copies shall be printed and housed in two libraries in India one of which is at the Oriental Research Institute, Sri Venkateswara University, and the other is at Balagaru Matha, Karnataka. This project has been supported by generous donations of various individuals and we hope that more and more people and organizations

believe in the goals of this project and contribute their resources. Interested contributors can make checks out to Rochester Institute of Technology (please indicate manuscript imaging project in the \u201cfor section\u201d) and post them to 3 Sunberry drive, Penfield, Rochester, New York 14526. Since RIT is a not-for-profit organization all contributions are tax exempt. Post processed images of the Sarvamoola grantha, a palm-leaf manuscript that is 700 years old and contains the essence of Hindu philosophy. ****************************************************************************************************************************************"Madhavan,G V. Bindu" <madhavgv wrote: Dear Sri Hari Bhaktas, It is with the blessings of Sri Hari, Vayu, Gurugalu, we are bringing to the kind attention of our fellow devotees an excellent opportunity to provide our support, however humble it may be, to the cause of digital preservation of ancient Madhva literature available in original palm leaves in various mathas in Udupi. Professor Mukund in the Department of Electrical Engineering and his dedicated team of excellent technical American experts in the Center for Imaging Sciences in Rochester Institute of Technology in the US have successfully accomplished in two trips to India the initial phase of the project by

completing the degitization of the original Sarvamoola Granthas of Sri Madhvacharya preserved in Palimaru Matha in Udupi. This effort was widely covered in the print media in the US and other countries and received much acclaim. Professor Mukund and his team are embarking to extend the project for digital preservation of 800 more palm leaf manuscripts in the eight mathas in Udupi. In addition, this team wishes to explore this technology for preservation of manuscripts in other Madhva mathas and other ancient Vaishnava literature as well. Professor Mukund and his team have also received encouraging communication from the Executive Officer of Thiumala Thirupati Devasthanams for housing the printed copies of the digitally preserved manuscripts in a new exclusive "Vaishnava Wing" in the SV Central Library in Thirupati for the use of scholars. Vishva Madhva Sangha will be happy to

collect financial contributions for this noble cause and pass on the collection to the Palm Leaf Project in Rochester Institute Of Technology. Please come forward and provide your support. Even small humble contributions could help since small drops make the flood. Please mail your checks payable to Vishva Madhva Sangha (VMS) and mail to our treasurer Sri Sathya at the following address: M.S. Sathyanarayana20217 Las Ondas WayCupertino, CA 95014 Your contributions are US Federal Tax exempt since VMS is a non-profit tax exempt organization. Our treasurer Sri Sathya will mail receipts to the contributors after receiving their checks. Professor Mukund is copied in this e-mail and VMS requests Professor Mukund to make postings in this VMS List to provide additional information to augment this fund-drive. Hare Srinivasa Bindu

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