Imaging Technology Restores 700-Year-Old Sacred Hindu Text [ Sarvamoola granthas ]

RIT University News Web ^ | Tuesday, September 19, 2006 | Susan Gawlowicz

[SunkenCiv]

Scientists who worked on the Archimedes Palimpsest are using modern imaging technologies to digitally restore a 700-year-old palm-leaf manuscript containing the essence of Hindu philosophy. The project led by P.R. Mukund and Roger Easton, professors at Rochester Institute of Technology, will digitally preserve the original Hindu writings known as the Sarvamoola granthas attributed to scholar Shri Madvacharya (1238-1317). The collection of 36 works contains commentaries written in Sanskrit on sacred Hindu scriptures and conveys the scholar's Dvaita philosophy of the meaning of life and the role of God... "It is literally crumbling to dust," says Mukund, the Gleason Professor of Electrical Engineering at RIT... "The book will never be opened again unless there is a compelling reason to do so," Mukund says. "Because every time they do, they lose some. After this, there won't be a need to open the book."

[SunkenCiv]

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Each palm leaf of the sacred Hindu manuscript, the Sarvamoola granthas, was captured in multiple sections, processed and digitally stitched together. Image A shows the condition of an original leaf from the text, stitched together but unprocessed. Image B shows a stitched and processed page after applying modern imaging technologies. Images were taken by Roger Easton, from Rochester Institute of Technology, and Keith Knox, from Boeing LTS, using a Sensys scientific digital camera and an infrared filter. [click to view 3 megabyte image]

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DaveLoneRanger for the link.

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[ClearCase_guy]

In the West, we work to preserve artifacts from all the cultures of the world. They all have value.

In an Islamic world, this document would be joyously crushed under the boots of a celebrating crowd.

[Physicist]

They all have value.

A shocking number of people here on FR would disagree with that.

[Publius6961]

The clarity of the restoration is breathtaking!

But I think it's petty of the authors to fail to mention that it was all made possible by the superior intellect and technology of islamic "science".

< /sarcasm >

[SunkenCiv]

"The accuracy of existing printed copies of the Sarvamoola granthas is unknown."

Heh heh... it is curious that the manuscript has been (sort of) preserved, but no one is sure if the copies are correct, but I suppose that's a consequence of the one and only original being unreadable at present. Presumably other scribal copies were made from which printed copies derive?

[Publius6961]

Wow.

One of the gem web finds of the year.
Thank you so much.

Three hours so far and I haven't absorbed it all.
palimpsestos = "scraped again"

[Publius6961]

Three hours on the Archimedes Palimpsest Project web site, that is.
The breadth and scope of modern technological wonders brought to bear to solve these "impossible" projects is nothing short of miraculous!

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure! I think there are some (quite a few) FR topics on the earlier work.

[SunkenCiv]

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