World’s first Palm-leaf Manuscript Museum in Kerala capital

Palm leaf Manuscript Museum: The Palm Leaf Manuscript Museum, equipped with contemporary audio-visual technology, has been opened in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, by Kerala Chief Minister (CM) Pinarayi Vijayan. The Museum, promoted as “World’s First Palm-Leaf Manuscript Museum” was set up by the Archives Department in association with the Kerala Museum of History and Heritage at a cost of Rs 3 crore.

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The museum is a collection of intriguing tidbits about the political, societal, and economic aspects of the 650-year-long Travancore kingdom that ended in the 19th century. It had been the Central Vernacular Records Office since 1887 before becoming a museum.

Key Highlights of the museum:

The museum is a useful resource for historical and cultural studies for both academic and non-academic researchers. There are eight theme-based galleries at the museum, each one showcasing a different aspect of society, including “History of Writing,” “Land and People,” “Administration,” “War and Peace,” “Education and Health,” “Economy,” “Art and Culture,” and “Mathilakam Records.”

The museum stores 187 manuscripts at Central Archives and the department’s regional officers in Ernakulam and Kozhikode. The manuscripts span 6 centuries From 1249 CE to 1896. It will be housed in the 6,000-sq ft museum which was arranged by the Kerala government’s nodal agency for museums Keralam–Museum of History and Heritage. Ancient scripts including Vattezhuthu, Kolezhuthu, Malayanma, and ancient Tamil and Malayalam manuscripts are kept in the museum. The 1st phase’s archival material was selected after sorting through a stock of carelessly stored 1.5 crore palm-leaf records from all across Kerala.