Maharashtra govt comes to Tamil University's help for digitising Modi script

THANJAVUR: The Maharashtra government has allotted Rs 1.90 crore to Tamil University (TU) for digitising all Modi script documents available in Tamil Nadu, cataloguing and publishing them, said Dr R. Vivekananda Gopal, associate professor and head, Tamil and Translation Studies department, Dravidian University, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh here.

Using that amount, five lakh Modi script documents have been digitised and another five lakh have to be digitised. “We have asked for more funds from the Maharashtra government,” Gopal said.

Sri Gopal is also the nodal officer for digitisation of Modi script documents by TU. Significantly, the Modi script documents remained scattered at various places in the state like Combatore, Madurai, Tiruchy, Cuddalore and Chennai, besides Thanjavur where they were found in large numbers at Saraswathi Mahal Library, the biggest manuscripts library in the whole of Asia.

“All the documents in other places were collected and brought to TU,” said Gopal. Modi script documents are in Marathi script and these are documents written by erstwhile Maratta rulers of Thanjavur to the Government of Tranquebar then. (Danish).