With 2.7lakh scanned pages, archival project led by IITBombay on Narayana Guru to go online this May

A massive digitisation project undertaken by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, in association with the Sree Narayana Mandira Samity (SNMS), Mumbai, will give a peep into the life of Sree Narayana Guru, who paved the way for a modern Kerala during the end of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century. The archive project, titled Narayana Guru Digital Research Resource Platform (NGDRRP), which began in 2023, will be fully available online this May. Siby K. George, Professor of Philosophy, IITBombay, and principal investigator of the project, said, ‘‘Detailed academic studies, especially in English, on Sree Narayana Guru are hardly available. 

The digital archive project is expected to solve this issue as over 2.7lakh pages have now been scanned and hosted on the platform.” According to Girija K.P., consultant and project coordinator who coordinated the digitisation and groundlevel work, the objective of the project is to compile, sort, classify, vet, and digitise literature on Sree Narayana Guru, currently scattered among individuals and institutions and unavailable to researchers, and to create a credible and systematic archive. It also aims to make available previously inaccessible materials, including magazines published during the Guru’s time. These materials may assist researchers and proponents of the Guru in gaining a deeper understanding of his multifaceted personality, Ms. Girija said. 

The scope of the project involved digitising extensive materials collected from the private collection of individuals such as G. Priyadarsanan at Varkala, public libraries, and personal collections of Guru’s disciples and followers. 

The documents will be launched in collaboration with the South Asian Open Archives. Some magazines (24 issues of Dharmam and 71 issues of Mithavadi) have been launched this month, said Pradeep Kumar P.I., Professor of Chemistry, IITBombay, and coprincipal investigator. Anish Damodaran of the SNMS, which funded the ₹42lakh project, said that to chronicle the history of modern Kerala, a comprehensive archive of Sree Narayana Guru was imperative. This forced the outt to take up the project with the IITBombay, he said.

Source: https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-erode-9WW6/20250120/281775634821359 1/1

https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-erode-9WW6/20250120/281775634821359