Tamil Classics on the Net

In town recently too was Subhashini Tremmel, a Malaysian of Tamil origin settled in Germany, who, together with a few others in Europe, is tracing the Tamil Classics and uploading them on the Net. The Tamil Heritage Foundation, as the group is called, was formed in 2000 and has a wing in Tamil Nadu. Dr. M. Rajendran, former Vice- Chancellor of the Tamil University, is the secretary of the Foundation here, and Banu Kumar and K.R.A. Narasiah are on the Governing Council. They contribute significantly to the output. So too does the British Museum Library

Among the items that the Foundation has put on the Net are Tamil literature (both print and palm leaf), folk music, and material on the traditional arts, Siddha medicine, local dialects etc.

Subhashini’s latest finds are two sets of palm leaf manuscripts on the Jain way of life. Yathi achaaram is about how Jain monks should live and the other is Siravah achaaram on Jainism explained to non-Jains.

These 8th/9th Century manuscripts were scanned for Tremmel in Madras and now go back on her computer for uploading in Germany.

Subhashini visits India every year in search of material and visits remote villages to record voices and photograph inscriptions, traditional rites etc. And so an invaluable collection is being built up and disseminated to a wider audience.

Thanks: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/tamil-classics-on-the-net/article4520481.ece