At DNA, an update says Google Inc will digitize over 8,00,000 books and texts available at the Mysore University. Present among the books are ancient, rare texts and manuscripts including Kautilya's 'Arthasastra', India's first ever political, economic, state, military treatise composed in the 4th B.C. Other books and manuscripts include works on ayurveda, mathematics, medicine, science, astrology and economy.
J. Shashidhara Prasad, vice chancellor of the university said, "Written in both papers and palm leaves, there are around 100,000 manuscripts in our library, some dating back to the eighth century. The effort is to restore and preserve this cultural heritage for effective dissemination of knowledge."
"Google has offered to digitize these manuscripts as well as 700,000 other books free of cost. Google India chief (Eric Schmidt) had already interacted with us and is ready to provide us expertise, software and even manpower," Prasad said. Besides, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has also provides some financial assistance.
Present also are papers on Mysore's Wodeyar dynasty. The finishing date of the project was not announced.
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This is absolutely terrific news. It is wonderful that google doesn’t limit their text digitizing efforts to just Western texts. 700,000 books? It is a gift to future generations, because once they are ‘on the net’ they will never be lost.
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