Tamil Heritage Foundation (THF) is a non-profit organization that collaborates with the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

to collect, preserve and digitize documents of Tamil cultural heritage. Among activities around the world, the project activities are centered primarily in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

.Tamil Heritage Foundation
THF website. Retrieved 17 January 2012..

Purpose

The purpose of the global effort is to make available hundreds of works, more than 100 years old, that had been collected during

British colonial rule The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

of the Tamil speaking people through online access to the digitized documents.British Library Tamil Collection.
Tamil Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 17 January 2012. Its motto is "to serve Tamil and Tamils across the world". The project allows the modern reader to tap into ancient wisdom about the scientific fields of

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, and

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

. Cultural life is told in manuscripts about the

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. Pilot project The limited collection of ancient, rare books and

palm-leaf manuscript Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed ...

s are digitally available on the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

or on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

to the public free of charge. The categories of works include art, language, history and the sciences. Then, the project will be expanded to include several thousand Tamil books. The director of the project is Dr. Narayanan Kannan who was a founding member, in addition to Dr. Kuppusamy Kalyanasundaram and Ms. Subashini Kanagasundaram, who are located in South Korea, Switzerland and Germany, respectively.Interview: Digitalizing heritage for the coming generation.
Bhasha India. Microsoft. Retrieved 17 January 2012.

References

External links

பிரித்தானிய British Library Project தமிழ் நூற்சேகரம்!

Tamil - Language and Culture, O Book (UyirppU), Tamil Heritage Foundation

An introduction to Tamil Heritage Foundation
{{Tamil language British Library collections Indian digital libraries Tamil culture