Study of existing elements describing indian manuscripts to develop a model metadata element sets

Abstract

O ld manuscripts are most significant sources of recorded information to portray newlinesocio-cultural and literary history of any civilization. Before invention of printing machine, newlinemanuscript was the only medium for recording and communicating human knowledge and newlinewisdom. The manuscript tradition has carried forward from generations to generations and newlinecenturies to centuries. Indian civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and newlinethus India perhaps possesses one of the oldest and largest collections of manuscripts in the newlineworld. newlineThese manuscripts are inscribed on different kinds of materials such as birch bark, palm leaf, newlinecloth and paper. Indian manuscripts are available in different scripts and in different newlinelanguages. A variety of institutions such as libraries, museums, archives, monasteries, newlinemadrasas, temples, mutts as well as private homes are custodians of Indian manuscripts. It is newlineestimated that about five million Indian manuscripts are newlineavailable newlinein newlineIndia newlineand newlineanother 0.3 to 0.5 million in other countries. Indic researchers and scholars could newlineknow only a small portion of manuscripts (about 20-25%) from the secondary sources such as newlineprinted catalogues, library catalogues and manuscript surveys out of total collections of newlineIndian manuscripts. This is because untraceable treasures of manuscripts are hidden in newlineprivate homes, religious trusts, houses of worship and defunct newlineother newlinehand, manuscripts newlineinscribed newlinepublic newlinebodies. newlineOn newlinethe newlineon biodegradable materials and may perish due to newlinenatural decay after certain period. Manuscripts are often found to have been neglected newlinefor decades and in very poor physical condition insect ridden, fungus infected or newlinebrittle, newlinefading newlineand fragile. newlinescientifically preserved newlinenor newlineMost of the manuscript collections in India are neither newlineproperly newlinedocumented newlinethrough newlineprinted newlinecatalogues newlineor newlinelibrary catalogues or registers. newline