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Foundation of Library and Information Science

Notes “Drama Ganja” meaning mast of religion. The other important academic library of that period
was Vikramshila, Odantapuri, Somapuri, Jaggadal, Mithila, Vallabhi, Kanheri, etc. During that
period there was a considerable activity in South India too, and there was a tradition about the
libraries in that period known as sangam age. The Buddhist of India laid special emphasis on the
writing of manuscripts and maintaining their collection. The Jains and Hindus also made immense
contribution in the field of learning. They patronized education and literary activities, established
innumerable institution called Upasrayas and Temple College. Acharya Nagarjuna, the founder
of Mahayana Buddhism is known to have maintained a library on the top floor of the university
building. It was also said that Taxila has a rich library.

1.2.1 Medieval Period

The medieval cycle may be roughly taken to have ended with the 17th century. It was during the
ascending phase of this cycle that the giant intellectual and spiritual leaders such as Sankara,
Ramanuja and Madheva flourished.
1. Personnel Libraries: From the earliest times, the kings and nobles of India patronized
education and encouraged writing of manuscripts and their preservation. Even the princes
of small states maintained their manuscripts libraries. The tradition was continued till the
nineteenth century. The emperors of Timuride dynasty were patrons of learning. With the
exception of Aurangzeb all the early Mughal rulers extended their support to art, music
and literature. The libraries also made remarkable progress during their times. Humayun
converted a pleasure house in Purana Quila in Delhi into a library. Akbar maintained an
“imperial library”; he was also instrumental in introducing reforms in the classification
and storage of books. Jahangir is said to have maintained a personnel library which
moved with him wherever he went.

2. Public Libraries: In the 17th and the 18th century, the development of libraries received an
impetus due to rise of European settlement in India. From 1690, Calcutta began to develop
as one of the principal English settlement, when a large number of British began to settle
there. Subsequently, the circulation and subscription libraries came into being. The East
India Company established the Fort St. David library in 1707 at Cuddalore. In the year
1709, the society for promotion of Christian Knowledge sent out a circulating library to
Calcutta, the first of its kind in India. Subsequently, a number of such libraries were
established in India, the notable among them were Fort St. George library (1714), East
India Company’s library, Bombay (1715), John Andrews circulating library at Fort William,
Calcutta (1770), the Calcutta Circulating Library (1787), etc.

1.2.2 Period of Modern Cycle (till 19th Century)

Following are the Period of Modern Cycle till the 19th century:
1. Public Libraries: The role of Mughal rulers and missionaries in establishment of some
libraries also find their way to modern cycle. Some of the scattered manuscripts of the
early periods have been collected and preserved in many modern manuscripts libraries.
These are found in many States in India. Those of Baroda, Banaras, Bombay, Calcutta,
Madras, Mysore, Poona, Tanjavur and Trivandrum are well known.

The year 1808 is considered an important period during which the then Government of
Bombay initiated a proposal to register libraries which were to be given copies of books
published from “funds for the encouragement of literature”. This has been the first attempt
to register the libraries and assist them with literature by the government.

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