For over two thousand years, scribes have recorded much of India's literary and scientific heritage on the readily available medium of dried, smoothed and smoke-treated leaves of talipot (olai in Tamil) palm trees. Carefully etching letters into the dried leaf with a stylus in a manner that avoids splitting the leaf and later applying lampblack or turmeric to enhance contrast and legibility, uncounted generations of scribes preserved much of India's vast intellectual legacy. When left undisturbed in the tropical climate, these palm-leaf manuscripts could last three or four centuries, after which a new patron would commission scribes to copy the precious manuscripts onto freshly treated palm-leaves.

The existing palm-leaf manuscripts in Tamil on traditional science cover the following 12 areas:

1. Indigenous medicine, including:
   • Siddha;
   • Ayurveda; and
   • Yunani systems
2. Human anatomy (Varmam, surgery)
3. Veterinary science (Vakatam)
4. Agriculture (Kuvam, Karanul)
5. Traditional art and architecture:
   • Temple art
   • Temple architecture
   • Shipbuilding
   • Carpentry
   • Metalworking
   • Sculpture
6. Traditional musicology
7. Techniques of writing
8. Astrology & astronomy
9. Yoga
10. Animal husbandry
11. Martial arts
12. Physiognomy (Samudria Laksanam)

The Institute of Asian Studies has assembled a project team of highly-qualified and dedicated specialists with experience in preserving and translating palm-leaf manuscripts. Already the project has published the first five volumes of a projected 25-volume Descriptive Catalogue of Palm-leaf Manuscripts.

Traditional medical texts

Today there is a growing appreciation worldwide about traditional knowledge, particularly in the field of medical science. Most Indian palm-leaf manuscripts on traditional science pertain to medicine such as the Siddha and Ayurvedic systems of treatment along with the Unani system popular in the Muslim world. Modern research has demonstrated that these traditional systems give lasting relief to many chronic diseases. These systems echew surgery and yet the curing effect is remarkable, even for very serious diseases which may not cured by allopathic treatment. Moreover, the native medicines are based either on herbs or metals which are not injurious to health when used according to traditional prescription. Nowadays with the help of palm-leaf manuscripts attempts are being made in India to treat life-threatening diseases like AIDS, heart disease and diabetes.

The publication of these rare manuscripts will undoubtedly be a welcome contribution to medical research in India, Asia and worldwide. In India alone there are a great many medical and technical colleges that will be eager to access the published results of this project, both in printed and digital formats. Uncounted humlife improved for millions of others by analysing traditional Asian medical treatments based upon commonly available herbs and minerals.

Being organic in nature, palm-leaf manuscripts are susceptible to decay and disintegration over time. Most of the extant manuscripts available in the custodial organisations and with the individual practitioners are on the verge of disintegration.

Project specialists therefore also take steps to preserve original manuscripts. Normally chemical treatments are given using fumigation chambers to protect palm-leaves from white ants, fungus and other insects. Insecticides and pesticides are useless as the pests develop immunity over time. IAS-trained specialists treat manuscripts using fumigation boxes or chemicals like Thymol and chloromate solution.

Digitalization is the crowning stage; the process is currently being developed by an international team of distinguished scholars from the University of Cologne (Germany) and the University of California-Berkeley (USA) with headquarters at the IAS (India) as part of the Tamil Lexicon and Pongal-2000 collaborative projects to compile an Online Tamil Lexicon (OTL). This same technology may be applied to digitalize the contents of palm-leaf manuscripts once they have been rendered into modern Tamil by specialists in this field.

Once these texts have been translated and digitalized, they will be disseminated in the form of a searchable online database and as CD-ROMs as well as conventional publication as books. Libraries around the world including major manuscript repositories in India will have their own digital 'reading rooms' where any MS folio may be brought up for viewing. The pilot programme at the Institute of Asian Studies, Madras, will also serve as a regional training centre for librarians and manuscriptologists from other Asian countries that wish to acquire new techniques of preservation for their national palm-leaf manuscript collections.