The well-respected scholar Dr. V. N. Ramachandran of Phlghat, Kerala, India has been preserving endangered texts in Southern India for forty years. His work has led him to photograph manuscripts, rare printed books, and palm leaf manuscripts in inaccessible collections throughout Southern India. For nearly half a century, this extraordinary digital repository has supported the work of scholars of Indology from around the globe, who have worn a path to his door to benefit from his guidance, expertise, and his prodigious digital collection.
ALL proudly hosts Dr. Ramachandran’s collection, which encompasses 13,167 volumes. The collection is remarkably diverse and includes materials pertaining to Ayurvedic traditional medicine, Vedic studies, linguistics, yogic sciences, cosmology, epistemology, philosophical doctrines, precepts on meditation and practices, the four kinds of yoga, mantras, temple construction, deity worship, and many others – more than 850 subjects in all. The texts represent languages including Arabic, English, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam, Persian, Tamil and Telugu in various scripts, such as Grantha and Devanagari.
Dr. Ramachandran is an epic traveler and has scoured obscure and previously undocumented libraries throughout Southern India for decades. In his digital collection, there are manuscripts, rare printed books and palm leaf manuscripts from 390 libraries from across Southern India.
ALL rejoices in the incredible work of Dr. Ramachandran, and we are proud to partner with Dr. Ramachandran to digitally preserve this exceptional and steadfastly curated collection for all time.
