Saraswathi Mahal Library or Maharaja Serfoji’s Saraswathi Mahal Library, located in Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, is one of the oldest libraries in Asia. The library is located inside the campus of the Tanjavur Palace.

The library has the most remarkable and rare collection of Palm Leaf manuscripts and papers (more than 49,000) written in different languages such as Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, English, Marathi and some of the local languages of India. The library also consists valuable collections of manuscripts, books, maps, and paintings highlighting the arts, culture and literatures.

History of Saraswathi Mahal Library

The Saraswathy Mahal Library was started as a Royal Library, for use by the Nayak Kings of Tanjavur who ruled between 1535 CE-1675 CE. It was later on developed until 1855 under the Maratha rulers who captured Thanjavur in 1675. It was Maharaja Serfoji II, an eminent scholar, who took an exceptional interest in the advancement of library by collecting a vast number of literary works from prominent Centres of Sanskrit learning. The library was thus official named in honour of this great Maratha patron.

Notable Features of the Library

• The library is under the possession of the State of Tamil Nadu since 1918.
• The library has been acclaimed as “the most remarkable library in India” by the Encyclopedia of Britannica in its surveys of libraries of the world.
• The library’s collection of manuscripts include:
  • A major portion of the collection consists of 39,300 Sanskrit scripts which are also written in Grantha, Devanagari, Nandinagari and Telugu scripts.
  • A collection of around 3076 Marathi Manuscripts from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
  • The Tamil manuscripts are around 3500 that covers works in literature, music and medicine.
  • The collection also includes 22 Persian and Urdu manuscripts belonging to the 19th century, 846 Telugu manuscripts,1342 bundled records of Maratha Raj and medical records of Ayurveda scholars piled up under the Dhanvantari section.
• The library also supports publishing of the rare manuscripts from its collection. The library activities are computerized and also ensures that the volumes are preserved on microfilm.
• The library conducts audio visual documentaries emphasizing the importance of our history and important places to visit.
• There is a museum located inside the library that is open to general public to have a view of the ancient manuscripts, original drawings in printed format, paintings in different forms(paper, canvass, wooden, glass paintings), Physiognomy charts of Charles Le-Brun and portraits of Thanjavur Maratha Kings.
• The library is open on all days of the week, excepting Wednesdays, from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Entry fee of Rs. 50 is charged with an additional fee of Rs. 50 for camera.

How to reach Saraswathi Mahal Library

Tanjavur Royal Palace is 2 kilometres away from Tanjavur Junction and 0.5 kilometre away from the old Bus stand. Tanjavur is well connected to other cities. There are frequent local buses to Tanjavur, and it also has direct buses from Hyderabad, Ernakulam and Bangalore. Tanjavur Junction is the nearest rail head and Trichy international Airport is the nearest Airport (around 48 kilometres away from Thanjavur).

Epilogue

The place is a must visit for history enthusiasts. The quiet ambience of the library offers the tourists a glimpse of Indian culture through primeval paintings, scriptures and manuscripts.

Roja Muthiah Research library is one of the most updated and relevant cultural institutions, of our times, is located in CPT Campus, Taramani. Research Library exists to provide research material and facilities for the students of South Indian studies in a variety of fields spanning humanities, social sciences, and popular culture.

Its main objectives are to preserve, catalog and expand the collection of Roja Muthiah, who during his lifetime built one of the world’s finest private libraries of Tamil publications. For researchers working in the social, political and cultural history of South India, RMRL with its modern facilities can provide access to valuable source material. The collection covers Tamil heritage and culture, spanning a period of over 150 years.

It has over 1,50,000 books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets, and rare audio records, that covers fields as diverse as indigenous medicine, and classical, medieval and folk Tamil literature.

It has a veritable collection of Tamil cinema magazines and over 2,000 songbooks. The library has a number of Tamil cinema posters, magazine articles, and promotional literature. It also has a rich holding of oleo-lithographs from Raja Ravi Varma’s workshop. It benefits people working on Tamil film.

With software developed by UNESCO and technology developed by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune, a machine-readable catalog was created. The cataloging is done in Tamil for Tamil imprints. This can be viewed by transliterating into any of the desired Indian scripts and Roman scripts. So far, 68,000 titles have been cataloged and over 15,000 microfilmed.

It has facilities like reading room, extensive reference material including encyclopedias and general reference publications, Microfilm reading equipment and more. A large number of periodicals have been microfilmed and this program benefits scholars worldwide. With over 10,000 visitors each year, RMRL is the best resource center for researchers and academics that benefits scholars worldwide.

Official website of Roja Muthiah Research Library: RMRL.IN

The District Central Library is one of the oldest libraries that was started in the year 1952 at Victoria Townhall with the aim to cater to the book needs of the public. Then in the midst of the year 1956, it was moved to VOC park.

As it was developing rapidly, it got relocated again to the current location ie; cowly brown road, RS Puram.

This library covers a huge carpet area of about 21453 sq.feet. It houses all ranges of books for all types of readers.

Well, readers say that it is the best place to sit and read peacefully with subtle noises from outside. The books are neatly segregated and arranged for easy accessibility.

The library houses around 2 lakhs books and the books have separate shelves with their respective category names to which they belong.

The Library timings are 8.00 AM TO 8.00 PM, Book Lending: 8.00 AM TO 7.30 PM, IAS Section: 10.00AM TO 7.00PM Friday and IInd Saturday and all Government Holidays.

Chennai District Public Library | Connemara Public Library

Chennai District Public Library is one of the oldest libraries in the city and it is situated at Egmore, Chennai. Also known as Connemara Public Library, it serves as a Depository Library for the United Nations.

This is one of the four National Depository Libraries of India. Being a National Depository, it receives all periodicals, Newspaper, and also all the copies of the book that is published in our country.

In the year 1973, an addition of a new building happened where many collections books are available. Ancient times books, reference rooms, IAS Centre, etc are the few things to be mentioned that can be seen and experienced in this library.

Central Library Indian Institute of Technology Madras, is a library that is attached to IIT Madras.

Corporation Library located at Royapettah, and there is another library located at Triplicane that is set up by the Government of Tamil Nadu. These three libraries are directed to a common website namely: www.connemarapubliclibrarychennai.com where a user can gather a lot of information about the availability and other details with regards to books.

Chennai District Public Library Website:

Official website of Chennai District Public Library: Connemara public library chennai

Anna Centenary Library in Chennai is shortly known as ACL. It is an establishment of the Tamil Nadu Government.

It is quite a big library with 2700 visitors per day. Situated at Kotturpuram, Chennai, it occupies an area of 8 acres land with 9 floors.

It is a huge library that has been designed to accommodate about 1250 persons at a time. ACL can space in 1.2 million books and has a separate section for children that is spread over 15,000 sq ft.

This area has a lot of storybooks and multimedia kits are also available to make reading fun for kids.

This place has all varieties of books, journals, braille books etc for the benefit of readers. So, if you are a voracious reader, this is the apt place for you.