This project preserved rare early Kannada books, that have significance for the understanding of Dravidian culture and for the creation of new knowledge about colonial South Asia. Such writings are invaluable for historians of social, cultural, literary, and intellectual change. The acid paper used to produce Kannada books has made this literature highly vulnerable.
The aim of the work supported under this grant was to preserve rare, endangered early Kannada books, publications having significance for the understanding of Dravidian culture and for the creation of new knowledge about colonial South Asia. Such writings are invaluable for historians of social, cultural, literary, and intellectual change. The acid paper used to produce Kannada books has made this literature highly vulnerable. Most of these books are not easily available from South Asian libraries or British colonial archives. The project was based at the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai, India and executed with six additional collections in southern India. The project results exceeded all of our original goals. We preserved 1,656 books, captured in 263,260 high-resolution TIFF images. Participating libraries in India have benefited because they were able to elect to receive digital copies of books at no cost. The University of Chicago and the Roja Muthiah Research Library benefited because we established excellent collaborative relationships with institutions contributing books for this project. The consolidated access will be invaluable for research scholars around the world.
