In Pics | World's First Palm-Leaf Manuscript Museum In Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram

The recently inaugurated Palm leaf Manuscript Museum in Kerala's capital has brightened the state's cultural and academic space by housing both obscure and celebrated tales of the old Travancore kingdom, which became Asia's first to defeat any European power on Indian soil. (Image Source: Twitter/@iprdkerala)

The facility, which bills itself as the world's first palm leaf manuscript museum, is essentially a repository of curious nuggets of administrative, socio-cultural, and economic aspects of Travancore spanning a period of 650 years until the end of the 19th century, as well as documents relating to territories of Kochi in the state's middle and Malabar further north. (Image Source: Twitter/@iprdkerala)

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan during the inauguration of the Archives Department's newly renovated palm-leaf manuscript museum in Thiruvananthapuram. (Image Source: PTI)

The museum, in addition to enhancing the state's cultural space, serves as a reference point for historical and cultural research for academic and non-academic academics, according to officials quoted by news agency PTI. (Image Source: Twitter/@iprdkerala)

Among the manuscripts on display at the museum are records of the famous Battle of Colachel, in which the heroic Travancore monarch Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1729-58) fought the Dutch East India Company at Colachel, 20 kilometres northwest of Kanyakumari in modern-day Tamil Nadu. (Image Source: Twitter/@iprdkerala)

This victory in 1741 put an end to Dutch growth in India, and Travancore, led by Marthanda Varma, became Asia's first state to oppose any European power's expansionist plans. (Image Source: Facebook/@rivandrum.indian)

The museum, which opened this week, features 187 manuscripts detailing a treasure trove of stories based exclusively on original sources: documents written on cured and treated palm leaves and tucked away in the recesses of the records rooms. (Image Source: Facebook/@rivandrum.indian)