Manuscripts to the rescue

From tracking cavalry losses in battle to identifying the owners of horses and dealing with officials charging pilgrims for a dip in the Ganges, medieval manuscripts offer an unusually detailed window into how the State functioned. How were losses of cavalry in battle arrived at, and how did the medieval State determine to whom those horses belonged? Or, for that matter, how did rulers in medieval India come to know that officials were charging pilgrims money for a dip in the Ganges? And what was the script on palm leaves that one finds scattered across private collections and government institutions?

Access to answers to these and a plethora of other questions connected to administration will become easier, with Telangana closely working with the Government of India to identify, preserve and digitise thousands of manuscripts and make them available to history enthusiasts and research scholars alike.