The world's first museum of palm leaf manuscripts established in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Tags: State News

Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, recently opened the world's first museum of palm leaf manuscripts, enriching the state culturally and educationally.

An overview of the news

• The museum has 187 manuscripts, based on primary sources.

• These documents are written on clean and clear palm leaves, which are furnished in the record rooms.

• In that period these palm leaves were treated before writing the description.

• The museum houses a collection of popular tales of Travancore, thefirst kingdom in Asia to defeat European powers on Indian soil.

• The museum gives a glimpse of the administrative, socio-cultural and economic aspects of the Kingdom of Travancore, which ruled for about 650 years till the end of the 19th century, with the boundaries of Kochi in the centre of the state and Malabar in the north.

• Apart from increasing the cultural wealth of the state, this museum is also important for academic and non-academic scholars.

• Apart from manuscripts, the museum also has information about the famous Battle of Colachel, in which the heroic king Anijam Tirunal Marthanda Varma (1729-58) of Travancore defeated the Dutch East India Company.

• The museum provides information on the complex land management of the Kingdom of Travancore, historical declarations and international agreements.

• Colachel is located 20 km north-west of present-day Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.

• Dutch expansion in India was halted by the victory of the Raja of Travancore in 1741, and under Marthanda Varma, Travancore became the first state in Asia to stop the expansionist thinking of a European power.