National Mission for Manuscripts has recognised the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library.
In a boon to research scholars, ancient manuscripts running to about three lakh pages have been digitised and made available online, Tamil Nadu Assembly was told on Wednesday.
"So far, 2,400 manuscript bundles of 3,00,000 pages have been digitised and are available online at www.tnarch.gov.in," School Education Minister P Benjamin said adding it would be useful to research scholars and other readers worldwide.
He said the National Mission for Manuscripts under the Union Culture Ministry has recognised the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library in Chennai as 'Manuscripts Resource Centre' in Tamil Nadu for collection of manuscripts and their digital conversion. "Work is in progress," he said.
Till date, "45,000 manuscripts have been documented in electronic form and the same has been sent to National Mission for Manuscripts, Delhi," Benjamin, who also holds the portfolio of archaeology, noted.
Set up in 1869, Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Centre here has more than 72,748 rare manuscripts and 25,373 reference books in a range of subjects including mathematics, astronomy, Siddha, Ayurveda, Unani, Vedas, Agama and history.
It also has books on several other subjects in Tamil, Sanskrit, Marathi, Urdu, Arabic and Persian languages and these are being preserved in the library.