nmm-stats

Source: bhAratendu on TW

Some stats on the manuscripts in India, basis the data published by National Mission of Manuscripts. There are 5 million+ MSS so far catalogued, in public and private collections of India.

While the MSS are in 100+ languages, these 21 account for 90% of MSS

  • Sanskrit - 2,389,016
  • Odiya - 516,501
  • Hindi - 329,124
  • Tibetan - 283,668
  • Tamil - 179,815
  • Malayalam - 142,818
  • Kannada - 102,242
  • Rajasthani - 99,066
  • Persian - 98,482
  • Arabic - 92,591
  • Prakrit - 76,650
  • Urdu - 71,594
  • Gujarati - 52,055
  • Marathi - 44,593
  • Bengali - 39,917
  • Assamese - 38,294
  • Telugu - 26,342
  • Braja - 10,862
  • Punjabi - 7,103
  • Maithili - 6,052
  • Awadhi - 4,365

These MSS are also written in more than 100 distinct scripts, but these 18 account for 90% of all the MSS so far catalogued.

While some scripts are almost exclusive to a particular language, most are used for MSS in multiple languages.

Sanskrit MSS comprise of about half of all the MSS in India, and Sanskrit written in Devanagari lipi comprise about 56% of those MSS. Sanskrit MSS are of course found in a wide variety of many other scripts. Here are the scripts which make up 90% of Sanskrit MSS.

  • Devanagari - 1,371,827
  • Odiya - 218,469
  • Bengali - 122,788
  • Grantha - 122,555
  • Malayalam - 115,279
  • Kannada - 104,578
  • Telugu - 86,594
  • Tiglari - 55,187
  • Nandinagari - 34,820
  • Assamese - 21,946
  • Mithilakshara - 14,782
  • Sharada - 13,495
  • Tamil - 9,831
  • Kaithi - 1,124
  • Brahmi - 714
  • Newari - 694
  • Gurumukhi - 655
  • Old Devanagari - 352
  • Gaudi - 212
  • Old Kannada - 97
  • Gujarati - 82
  • Ahom - 74
  • Tibetan - 71
  • Kalinga - 56

Where are these MSS located, by state, either in public archives or in private collections?

Here are the top 10 Indian states where these manuscripts are

  • Uttar Pradesh - 730,162
  • Odisha - 586,598
  • Rajasthan - 449,502
  • Maharashtra - 425,065
  • Bihar - 387,753
  • Karnataka - 328,766
  • Tamil Nadu - 325,322
  • Himachal Pradesh - 320,675
  • Kerala - 292,509
  • Madhya Pradesh - 244,981

Diversity of scripts can be seen in MSS even for languages other than Sanskrit.

For instance, while 98% of all the Kannada MSS are in Kannada script, there are many other scripts in which Kannada MSS are, interestingly even Persian. Kannada in Devanagari > Nandi or Telugu.

Similarly, while ~98% Hindi MSS are in Devanagari, there are many in various other scripts, including even a few apparently in Bengali, Gujarati and Kannada scripts. (not counting Nastaliq, which will be counted as Urdu). More Hindi MSS in Kannada script than in Gujarati.