HC seeks report on preservation of Plam manuscripts

The Madras High Court bench here on Thursday directed the Tamil Nadu government to file a report on the steps taken to preserve Palm manuscripts for which funds were allocated nearly four decades ago during the World Tamil Conference.

Hearing a PIL, Justices Mahadevan and S S Sundar asked the government to explain as to why the preservation work had not been completed and directed the Tamil Nadu Stone Inscriptions, a wing of the state Department of Archaeology, and also the Centre's Culture Department to file the report by October 30.

The court sought details of the funds allocated for the preservation work, amount spent and state of the work at present.

The petitioner submitted that during the World Tamil Conference held in 1980, funds were allocated for preserving the 16th century palm manuscripts stacked under 7,000 captions and subjects at the Saraswathi Mahal in Thanjavur.

There was a possibility of the manuscriptsgetting spoiled if they were not protected and digitised.