Inventaire des Manuscrits en dehors de Pondichéry

During the course of four and a half years a total number of 232 collections (195 private and 37 institutions) have been surveyed and documented for the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM). In total, this survey has covered 25312 manuscripts of which 2011 are paper and 23301 are palm-leaf.

Some of the interesting private collections include :

• A valuable collection of texts pertaining to the Vaikhanasagama tradition in THANJAVUR. It includes Agama texts and ritual manuals of which many are unpublished.
• A collection at TIRUNELVELI includes texts related to domestic rites mostly followed by Telugu-speaking Brahmins.
• Devotional hymns and Purana are the main subjects of a large collection found at VALLANADU (Tuttukkudi).
• The collection at SUCINDRAM (Kanyakumari) consists of texts on Siddha medicine and Ritual manuals.
• A good number of texts dealing with Mantra, Sanskrit Literature and Purana at SAMATTUR (Coimbatore).
• A fine collection of little-known Jaina texts, mostly in Sanskrit, including Jaina story-literature and works of ritual, is to be found in the villages of TONDUR, TAYANUR, and VELLIMEDUPPETTAI of Villupuram District.
• Collections in the village of SENKALIPURAM, Thanjavur District, and in MUSIRI, Trichirappalli District, Tamilnadu, contain significant and unpublished works on Vedic sacrifice.
• In MANAMADURAI, Sivagangai Taluk, we found numerous texts on Mantra-s used in day-to-day tantric practice and manuals for rites of installation of village deities, among others.
• The town of ALVAR TIRUNAGARI, Tirunelveli District, holds a body of literature on Vaishnava theology and Vaishnava ritual.
• One of the largest private collections we examined was that in the village of NAINARAGARAM, Tirunelveli district ; it is particularly strong on domestic and vedic ritual and astrology.

Among the institutional collections, the following are noteworthy :

• The collection housed at the Kaumara Matham, SINNAVEDAMPATTI (Coimbatore) has many works of Tamil Literature.
• The Kovilur Matham , KOVILUR (Sivagangai) has a good collection of Sthalapurana works and Tamil Literature.
• Sri Ranganatha Paduka Vidyalaya, SRIRANGAM houses a collection that is rich in works of Vaishnava Literature and Ritual Manuals.
• The Saurashtrasabha at MADURAI has conserved manuscripts of Karnatik classical songs composed by Saint Tyagaraja, one of the most celebrated musicians of the 18th century, and by other composers.
• VVV College, VIRUDUNAGAR, has valuable holdings in the areas of Veda, Purana and Vedic sacrifice (shrauta).
• A rich concentration of Tamil literary texts and works of the Virasaiva movement is to be found in the Virasaiva monastery at TIRUTTURAIYUR, Trichirappalli District.
• Tamil Literature and Purana-s are the speciality of the Tirumalainayakar Mahal in MADURAI.
• The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute, Mylapore, CHENNAI, has concentrated on texts that deal with domestic rites, devotional hymns and Purana-s.

More details can be found in the table of collections surveyed.