Monuments of Book Culture: One of the most magnificent surviving copies of the Ramayana to be reunified online in a major international project

One of the finest and most lavishly produced copies of India’s great epic, the Ramayana, will be brought together for the first time in May this year in a new digital resource, reuniting folios which have been separated across different institutions in India and the UK for just under two centuries.

The digitisation of the 17th c. manuscript is the result of a major collaborative partnership between the British Library and other institutions in India. The British Library currently holds around 80% of the surviving manuscript, and the remaining folios are held by the CSMVS Museum as well as other Indian institutions.

The Ramayana or ‘Story of Rama’ is one of the two ancient Sanskrit epics of India. Traditionally attributed to the sage Valmiki, its tale of exile, struggle, loss and redemption has been the subject of numerous retellings over time in many languages. The Library’s Mewar manuscript of the Ramayana, which was commissioned by Rana Jagat Singh I of Mewar in 1649, contains over 400 exquisite paintings and is widely considered to be one of the finest of all surviving illustrated copies. The reunified manuscript will be made available online for the first time this May, transforming access to this key text for the international research community and the general public alike.

The Mewar Ramayana project is part of a larger British Library aim to develop resources for the study and understanding of the shared history and culture of the UK and India. Since signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Ministry of Culture in 2010, the Library has worked closely with Indian research communities and institutions and has led collaborative projects including the digitisation of 10,000 historical images of Indian botany, and a major exhibition on Indian history, Mughal India: Art, Culture & Empire.