Palm leaf art on display at Odisha State Museum. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 29: Nearly 40,000 manuscripts of the Odisha State Museum will be available online to research scholars across the world with their cataloguing being done.

As of now, one can browse through around 5,000 manuscripts on the museum’s portal, said an official.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today inaugurated the cataloguing system, “e-pothi”.

The original manuscripts on palm leaf, bamboo leaf and engravings are preserved at the museum. These rare and ancient manuscripts will now be available on the museum website, www.odishamuseum.nic.in, as well.

“This is the state museum’s rare achievement. The initiative would be of immense help to researchers across the world. Through the project, the state will establish a special identity of its own,” said the chief minister.

Divided into 27 sections, the manuscripts are based on mathematics, purana, vedas, tantra, jyotisha, dharmasashtra, ayurveda, ganita, silpasashtra, sangita, abhidhana and vyakarana.

Ancient scripts on Sanskrit puranas, Sanskrit kavya, Bengali, Devnagari and Odia purana, Odia kavya, historical literature, Arabic manuscripts and manuscripts on darshan sashtra are also available on the website.

A rare set of 747 manuscripts on ayurveda can also be seen on the portal.

Museum authorities said online visitors could get access to the first and last page of individual manuscript for free. But, to see the entire text, one would have to make an online payment.

The museum will shortly come up with a gallery dedicated to the freedom fighters from the state. It will include a section in the gallery dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi and his association with Odisha.

“The section, which will be named Gandhi Circuit, will have descriptions on the Mahatma’s visits to the state and his contributions to the freedom struggle,” said tourism and culture minister Ashok Panda. The Father of the Nation made about seven trips to Odisha between 1921 and 1946.

The museum authorities are contacting a number of nationally acclaimed trusts on Gandhi to obtain further details on the same.

“The process of research is on. We will get in touch with scholars and freedom fighters, who will give us information and help us in the process,” said Panda.