In its bid to make available rare manuscripts including those written on palm leaves to researchers and students, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today launched e-Pothi, an online manuscript cataloguing system here.
Researchers can have access to digitalised rare manuscripts by sitting at their homes.
Patnaik launched the facility at a function here at the state museum.
About 40,000 palm leaf manuscripts preserved at the museum would be available online on the museum's website. The state museum has 27 sections of palm leaf manuscripts relating to Veda, Tantra, Purana, Ayurveda, Jyotisha, Shilpasastra, Mathematics, Grammar, Geeta Govinda and others, a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office said.
"The e-Pothi initiative will help promote Odisha's culture among the people at large. This digitised version of the manuscripts have been prepared and put online by the state Culture Department with the help of National Informatics Centre, Odisha," Patnaik said.
The rare manuscripts would be available on http://www.Odishamuseum.Nic.In, the release said.
State Culture Minister Ashok Panda said the project aims at facilitating researchers, students and scholars across the globe to get access to rare manuscripts of Odisha and provide a virtual walk through the state museum.
"The project works like an online catalogue, where a visitors can search based on authors, subjects or categories and get access to the manuscripts," the minister said.
A visitor can access the first and last page of a manuscript and if the person wants to read or take copies of the manuscripts for research purpose, there would be facility for online purchase through payment.
Charges would be higher for commercial use of the digitised format of manuscripts, Panda said.
A dedicated web page on Jaydev's Geeta Govinda manuscript was launched by the Culture Department last year.
