New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) India has launched an online database of one million pieces of precious knowledge about medicine, economy, religion, architecture, code of conduct and many more branches of wisdom, written on palm leaves, so far laying in cold solitude.

Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni formally launched Wednesday the national manuscript database, compiled and put on perspective by the four-year-old National Mission of Manuscripts (NMM) here in the capital.

"It's national treasure of India and put in focus our forefathers intellectual calibre. We had lost touch with our rich heritage and culture and with this database we could reflect on such a vast treasure," Soni said.

She said these manuscripts have a great demand aboard and "we came to know about it during the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. There were lots of enquiries and even German museums opened for a longer time to display them to their public."

NMM director Sudha Goplakrishnan told IANS: "The current database is of one million manuscripts some dating back to even 4th century. Within next seven months we would make another 800,000 manuscripts available on the cyber space."

These were collected from 15 Indian states, she said.

Soni, who launched the online database www.namami.org, also proclaimed 45 selected manuscripts - Vijnananidhi - as the manuscript treasures of India, a country with a 5,000-year-old civilisation.

The National Electronic Catalogue of Manuscripts, called Kritisampada, provides information on individual and collections of documents and printed catalogues, which will be available in Hindi and English. The manuscripts can be accessed on the basis of title, author, script, language, subject and material online.

The mission will contribute Rs.100,000 for the preservation of each of the 21 places where the manuscripts are kept.

Among the 45 are 17-centuries-old - one of the oldest manuscripts in the world - Gilgit manuscripts (kept in the National Archives of India in New Delhi and the Sri Pratap Singh Museum in Jammu and Kashmir), Chitra Bhagavat (illustrated Hindu holy book in the Krishna Kanta Handique Library, Guwahati), Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (the biography of Mughal emperor Jahangir in the National Museum, New Delhi), Sharadatilaka (the essence of 'tantras' kept in the Oriental Institute of Mysore) and Ramayana (in the Rampur Raza Library). Babur Namah, biography of the great Mughal emperor is one of these 45 selected pieces.

India has an estimated five million manuscripts, most of which lie unknown and neglected. The NMM, under the cultural ministry, would locate, preserve and promote the manuscripts.

NMM activities range from conducting nationwide surveys to unearthing each manuscript, the documentation and cataloguing of manuscripts and their conservation, training personnel in manuscript studies, publishing important research on manuscripts to organising lectures, seminars, debates for students and workshops for children.

Goplakrishnan said the proclamation of 45 manuscripts, as national treasures would enable them to provide suitable financial assistance for their proper preservation and conservation.