(Manuscript Digitisation & Contextualisation Project)
The Catalogue of Jain Manuscript that has been launched is really a technical document useable mainly by the researching academicians. These catalogues are in fact very detailed indices of the individual manuscripts held in the collections they refer to. They include details of individual manuscripts(mss) like:
- No of folios
- Physical characteristics like material used, size etc
- Language and the writing arrangement
- Title, author’s details, scribe’s details if available, date of creation, location of its creation.
- A very brief summary of the contents.
- Current location.
These catalogues assist researches in identifying the mss they need to look at for their specific research but do not provide any matter of general interest to lay persons.
However, the object of writing these manuscripts was solely to benefit the lay people with the teachings of learned saints and monks. With this real purpose in mind, the Institute of Jainology has developed the concept of digitisation and contextualisation.
Digitisation is a way to make these documents accessible to a wide public without any danger of damage for the manuscript itself, and is a way to preserve the paintings too. (origin of colours, use of colours, human types in the painting, conception of the landscape, themes for illustration, influence of other trends, such as Persian and Moghul, etc.).
The resulting database will have a range of topics, historical periods and styles so that the resultant contextualisation provides an encyclopaedia of all things Jain.
A possible framework of the database which we are terming as contextualisation is summarised below.
- Component Content
- Summary of the manuscript (language, date, content, author).
- Manuscript size, pages, material, condition etc.
- Art Style of presentation, method, process etc (video?)
- One should distinguish between the description of the art of the manuscript and the way this art is being made known to the public
- Author, commentator, translator, scribe Where possible the author of the text, the commentator where commentary is available. Details of the scribe where known.
- Dating, Geography, Politics Date of the original composition, and that of the manuscript. Geographical location of composition and of creation of the current manuscript. Related information about social, political, religious information at the time – influencing factors relating to the manuscript – and those driving development of the philosophy and doctrine.
- LanguageTranslation, transliteration, audio
- Reference Dictionary, Glossary, Holding Institute reference
- Texts Reference Texts, References to other MSS with similar properties.
- Related Jainology Philosophy, Doctrine, Ethics, Current Practice
- Architecture Temples and other architecture associated with geography, MSS, author (video)
- Other Related material, stories, people, places.
It must be remembered that this process of presenting the manuscripts to the general public is very expensive and only a selected number of manuscripts will be digitised.
A sample (artist’s impression) of how this framework may be represented on the website is shown below:
