Tamil Nadu News

Sarasvati Mahal Library

August 11 , 2025 15 hrs 0 min 33 0

The Tamil Nadu government has declared the Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji’s Sarasvati Mahal Library and Research Centre as a library of the historical and cultural importance.
The library is now classified as an aided library under the Tamil Nadu Public Libraries Rules 1950.
The collections of the palace library are believed to have begun in the sixteenth century under the Nayak rulers of Thanjavur from 1535 to 1675 Common Era (CE).
The Maratha rulers later expanded the collection with significant contributions from Raja Serfoji the Second, who ruled from 1798 to 1832 CE.
Raja Serfoji the Second was a known bibliophile who acquired several books and manuscripts for the library.
The library is housed within the historic Thanjavur Palace.
It holds over eighty-one thousand four hundred books and forty-seven thousand five hundred palm leaf and paper manuscripts.
The personal collection of the Raja includes the four thousand five hundred and thirty books.
The manuscripts are in Tamil, Sanskrit, Marathi, Telugu, Hindi, English, French, German, and Italian languages.
The scripts used in the palm leaves include Grantha, Devanagari, Nandi Nagari, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Odiya.
The Tamil collection also covers Saiva Vaishnavaite and Jain religious works, along with rare medicinal texts.
The Sarasvati Mahal Library is regarded as one of the greatest Oriental manuscript libraries in the world.
It is also considered among the oldest libraries in Asia.