Indian American scientist to digitally restore Vedanta manuscript

[Guest guest]

Note:

 

This appeared recently on the mailing list of http://www.dvaita.org

-I am sure Prof P R Mukund's works should be useful to all other

sampradaya-s

 

---

http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews & id=24885

 

 

By Arun Kumar, Washington, Sep 21: An Indian American

scientist is leading a project to digitally restore a

700-year-old palm leaf manuscript containing the

essence of Hindu philosophy by using modern imaging

technologies.

 

P.R. Mukund and Roger Easton, professors at Rochester

Institute of Technology, are working on the project to

digitally preserve the original Hindu writings, known

as the Sarvamoola granthas attributed to scholar Shri

Madvacharya (1238-1317).

 

The collection of 36 works contains commentaries

written in Sanskrit on sacred Hindu scriptures and

conveys the scholar's Dvaita philosophy of the meaning

of life and the role of God.

 

The document is difficult to handle and to read, the

result of centuries of inappropriate storage

techniques, botched preservation efforts and

degradation due to improper handling.

 

Each leaf of the manuscript measures 26 inches long

and two inches wide, and is bound together with

braided cord threaded through two holes. Heavy wooden

covers sandwich the 340 palm leaves, cracked and

chipped at the edges. Time and a misguided application

of oil have aged the palm leaves dark brown, obscuring

the Sanskrit writings.

 

" It is literally crumbling to dust, " says Mukund, the

Gleason Professor of Electrical Engineering at RIT.

 

According to Mukund, 15 percent of the manuscript is

missing.

 

" The book will never be opened again unless there is a

compelling reason to do so, " Mukund says. " Because

every time they do, they lose some. After this, there

won't be a need to open the book. "

 

Mukund first became involved with the project when his

spiritual teacher in India brought the problem to his

attention and urged him to find a solution.

 

This became a personal goal for Mukund, who studies

and teaches Hindu philosophy or " our way of life " and

understood the importance of preserving the document

for future scholars. The accuracy of existing printed

copies of the Sarvamoola granthas is unknown.

 

Mukund sought the expertise of RIT colleague Easton,

who imaged the Dead Sea Scrolls and is currently

working on the Archimedes Palimpsest. Easton, a

professor at RIT's Chester F. Carlson Center for

Imaging Science, brought in Keith Knox, an imaging

senior scientist at Boeing LTS, as a consultant.

Mukund added Ajay Pasupuleti, a doctoral candidate in

microsystems at RIT, and the team was formed.

 

The scientists travelled to India in December 2005 to

assess the document stored at a monastery-like mathas

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.

 

" This is a very significant application of the same

types of tools that we have used on the Archimedes

Palimpsest, " Easton says. " Not incidentally, this also

has been one of the most enjoyable projects in my

career, since the results will be of great interest to

a large number of people in India. "

 

The processed images of the Sarvamoola granthas will

be stored in a variety of media formats, including

electronically, in published books and on silicon

wafers for long-term preservation.

 

Etching the sacred writings on silicon wafers was the

idea of Mukund's student Pasupuleti. The process,

called aluminum metallization, transfers an image to a

wafer by creating a negative of the image and

depositing metal on the silicon surface.

 

According to Pasupuleti, each wafer can hold the image

of three leaves. More than 100 wafers will be needed

to store the entire manuscript. As an archival

material, silicon wafers are both fire- and

waterproof, and readable with the use of a magnifying

glass.

 

Mukund and Pasupuleti will return to India at the end

of November to give printed and electronic versions of

the Sarvamoola granthas to the monastery in Udupi in a

public ceremony in Bangalore, the largest city in the

Karnataka region.

 

" We feel we were blessed to have this opportunity to

do this, " Mukund says. " It was a fantastic and

profoundly spiritual experience. And we all came away

cleansed. "

 

Based on the success of this project, Mukund is

seeking funding to image other Dvaita manuscripts in

the Udupi region written since the time of Shri

Madvacharya. He estimates the existence of

approximately 800 palm leaf manuscripts, some of which

are in private collections.

-----

 

 

 

________

India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new

http://in.answers./