‘Researchers can make use of Kerala-related documents at British Library’

Researchers from Kerala can make use of the scientifically arranged documents related to the State’s history at the British Library in London, Arani Ilankuberan, Head of South Asian Collections there, has said.

She was at the University of Calicut at Tenhipalam in Malappuram on Wednesday (April 30, 2025) to attend a workshop organised by the Political Science department and the Mahakavi Moyinkutty Vaidyar Mappila Kala Academy. Ms. Ilankuberan was part of a team from the British Library that visited the campus to showcase some of their valuable documents in Malayalam, Sanskrit, and Arabi-Malayalam on Kerala’s medieval history.

Abbas Panakkal, a researcher who attended the workshop, said that the library has a gold plate on which the Zamorin of Calicut and the Dutch East India Company signed a treaty in 1691, and another silver plate on which a treaty was signed in 1710. Pasquale Manzo, who is in charge of the Sanskrit documents, said that the documents written in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Indian languages during the reign of the British East India Company would be essential for the study of Indian culture and history. Marina Chellini, another library official, spoke about the documents from north India.