Aims and objectives
This project had the following aims: the primary objective was to preserve through digitization the select endangered archival materials housed at the Maha Bodhi Society Archive at Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The other target was to carry out extensive survey of rare archival materials housed at the Sanskrit Sahitya Parishat in Kolkata. This survey of the Sanskrit Sahitya Parishat was conducted for future digitization and preservation through a larger future EAP grant.
Outcomes
Both the objectives of digitization and survey were successfully completed.We have succeeded in completing the entire targeted task of digitization at the Maha Bodhi Society Kolkata archive. We also completed the survey of the Sanskrit Sahitya Parishat Kolkata for possible future digitization through a major EAP grant. The Maha Bodhi Society Kolkata archive houses rare nineteenth and early twentieth century periodicals and texts which are connected to the Buddhist Maha Bodhi movement in South Asia and its connection with global Buddhist networks. Most importantly, the digitization work of this project contains the Maha Bodhi Society journals (the first issue began in 1892) along with many other Buddhist periodicals published from India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and other parts of the world. All these periodicals have huge research value for any future research on South Asian religious history and intellectual history. We completed a total of 11,465 files of digital copies through this digitization project.
Simultaneously, this project also had a strong research and training component, and therefore, along with digitization we also spent time to analyze the research data derived from the digitized materials. Our survey of the Sanskrit Sahitya Parishat in Kolkata is also important for future research as we have documented its rare Sanskrit and vernacular texts on Vaishnavism, Tantra, Purana, Ayurveda, Almanacs along with the Sanskrit Sahitya Parishat journals which began its publication in early twentieth century. We have also achieved success in our training workshops as we could train many local aspirants in digitization. We organized colloquiums on these research findings where we discussed and deliberated with experts on these research findings. Furthermore, we also arranged training events to train local aspirants about the process of digitization and preservation techniques.
