Oriental Institute

Maharaja Sayajirao University By No Comments

Inspired from Oriental Research Institute of Mysore established by Maharaja Chamraja Wodeyar of Mysore, the Oriental Institute of Baroda (aka : Prachya Vidhya Mandir) was conceived in 1893. It was finally established by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III on 1st September 1927, and then it was affiliated with The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1949.

The institute has changed several houses over the years and was initially operated from a building near Central Library. It was then moved near Kalabhavan (Senapati Bhavan)The institute works in the field of preserving  and documenting and collecting rare, important and illustrated manuscripts and indological books.

The Collection :

The Institute is known for housing more than 30,000 manuscripts and books across several halls.( A walk through the aisles of these halls is like a day in paradise or a walk through a room full of treasures, for a history lover or researcher!!!!). The manuscripts are spread over an array of different languages languages such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Gujarati, Marathi and even Persian. These are further categorized on the basis of the writing material such as Palm-leaf, Birch-bark, Paper etc.

One of the important old manuscripts housed in institue is the “Ayodhya Mahatmya”, from 1656 AD, written by Harishnakar. Along with this it also houses the “Tamra Patrak” (Copper leaf page) which is the first written record of the existence of Baroda as a small village ” Vatapatraka” and dates back to the 9th century AD. Institute is also well known for several volumes of Valmiki Ramayana that was published between 1951 & 1975, whose text was used in TV series Ramayan by Ramanand Sagar.

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The institute publishes two research quarterlies namely : Journal of Oriental Institute, Baroda (English) and Svadhyaya (Gujarati). And more than 186 works have been published in the world renowned Gaekwad’s Oriental Series based upon such ancient, important and rare manuscripts. The institute works tirelessly for digitising, translating and preserving the manuscripts and providing them to the researchers around the world.

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