Top Libraries to Explore in India

India boasts a rich cultural heritage and is home to numerous libraries that are repositories of knowledge and history. Here are some of the best libraries in India to visit:

National Library of India, Kolkata:

The National Library of India is located in the Belvedere Estate, Alipore, Kolkata. It’s the largest library in India by volume and public record. The library was established as the Calcutta Public Library in 1836, became the Imperial Library in 1903, and was renamed the National Library of India after India’s independence in 1948. The library is under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Its mission is to collect, disseminate, and preserve printed material produced within India. The library’s collection exceeds 2.5 million books and records, making it the largest in the country. The library also houses special collections in at least fifteen languages. The National Library of India serves as a permanent repository of all books, newspapers, and periodicals published in India. It provides various reader services for 362 days of the year, including reading, reference, bibliographic services, and book lending against a security deposit. The library also offers microfilm/microfiche reading facilities and acts as a center for international loan. https://www.nationallibrary.gov.in/

The Asiatic Society, Mumbai:

The Asiatic Society of Mumbai, formerly known as the Asiatic Society of Bombay, is a learned society in the field of Asian studies. It was first established as the Literary Society of Bombay, which held its first meeting in Mumbai on 26 November 1804. The society was founded by Sir James Mackintosh with the intention of “promoting useful knowledge, particularly such as is now immediately connected with India”.

The society is housed in the iconic Town Hall building in the colonial-era Fort precinct of Mumbai. Its activities include conducting historical research, awarding historians, and running an institute of post-graduate studies.

The library of the society has over a hundred thousand books, out of which 15,000 are classified as rare and valuable. It also has priceless artifacts and over 3,000 ancient manuscripts in Persian, Sanskrit, and Prakrit, mostly on paper but some on palm leaf. The numismatic collection of 11,829 coins includes a gold coin of Kumaragupta I, a rare gold mohur of Akbar, and coins issued by Shivaji Maharaj. Its map collection comprises 1300 maps.

The society also organizes various programs and events. For instance, an excursion with Dr. Kurush Dalal was organized on Sunday, 17th March 2024, to explore the forts that once secured Bombay. Another event, an audio-visual presentation by Dr. Prakash Joshi on the melodious musical journey of O.P. Nayyar, was scheduled for Saturday, 23rd March 2024. https://www.asiaticsociety.org.in/

Rampur Raza Library, Uttar Pradesh:  

The Rampur Raza Library, located in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, India, is a significant repository of Indo-Islamic cultural heritage. Established in the last decades of the 18th century, it was built up by successive Nawabs of Rampur and is now managed by the Government of India. The library is named after Raza Ali Khan Bahadur.

The library houses a collection of manuscripts, historical documents, specimens of Islamic calligraphy, miniature paintings, and illustrated works in Arabic and Persian. It also contains printed works in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Pashto, Tamil, and Turkish, and approximately 30,000 printed books (including periodicals) in various other languages.

The library was founded by Nawab Faizullah Khan in 1774, and the Nawabs of Rampur were great patrons of learning. The library grew rapidly under their patronage, attracting scholars, poets, painters, calligraphers, and musicians. After the Independence of India and the merger of the state in the Union of India, the library was brought under the management of a trust created on 6th April 1951.

The library has 17,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Pashto, Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi, and Turkish languages. Moreover, it possesses a good collection of paintings and palm-leaf manuscripts in various Indian languages. A collection of around 60,000 printed books in various Indian and foreign languages are also available. https://indiaculture.gov.in/rampur-raza-library-rampur

Delhi Public Library, Delhi:

The Delhi Public Library, located in Chandni Chowk, opposite the Old Delhi railway station, is a significant public library in India. It was established in 1951 by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, with financial and technical assistance from UNESCO. The library was inaugurated by the first Prime Minister of India, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, on 27th October 1951.

The library provides free library services to children and adults, irrespective of any distinction of sex, caste, creed, and religion. It operates from Monday to Saturday, from 10:00 am to 05:00 pm. The library houses up to 16 lakh books, across languages, including English, Hindi, Urdu, and Sanskrit.

The Delhi Public Library also acts as a community center for informal education and a model for public library development in India. It serves the needs of all members of the community, especially Neo-Literates and Children, without any distinction of class, creed, occupation, race, sex, etc. https://dpl.gov.in/

Tata Central Archives, Pune:

The Tata Central Archives (TCA), located in Pune, is the first business archive in India. It was launched by JRD Tata in Bombay (now Mumbai) in January of 1991 and became a division of Tata Services in 1997. In 2001, the archives moved to Pune and were formally inaugurated by Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons.

The TCA collects and retains letters, documents, images, printed books, group publications, and ephemera of potential historical and critical significance to the Tata Group, one of the largest and most respected business houses in India. The collections comprise of documents, photographs, paintings, awards, medals, citations, and memorabilia.

The TCA has been awarded the prestigious Platinum Rating under the Indian Green Building Council’s (IGBC) Green Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance Rating System in 2016. TCA has been recertified with IGBC’s Platinum rating with 90 points in 2022.

The TCA is located within the precincts of the Tata Management Training Centre situated on 1, Mangaldas Road, Pune. The exhibition galleries are open to visitors from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. https://www.tatacentralarchives.com/

Saraswathi Mahal Library, Thanjavur:

The Saraswathi Mahal Library, also known as Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji’s Saraswathi Mahal Library, is located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the oldest libraries in Asia, established during the 16th century by the Nayakar kings of Thanjavur.

The library has a rare collection of Palm leaf manuscripts and paper written in Tamil, Sanskrit, and a few other indigenous languages of India, especially southern regional languages. The collection comprises well over 49,000 volumes, though only a tiny fraction of these are on display. The library has a complete catalog of holdings, which is being made available online. Some rare holdings can be viewed on site by prior arrangement.

The Saraswathi Mahal library was started by Nayak Kings of Tanjavur as a Royal Library for the private intellectual enrichment of Kings and their family of Thanjavur who ruled from 1535 CE till 1676 CE. The Maratha rulers who captured Thanjavur in 1675 promoted local culture and further developed the Royal Palace Library until 1855. Most notable among the Maratha Kings was Serfoji II (1798–1832), who was an eminent scholar in many branches of learning and the arts. In his early age Sarfoji studied under the influence of the German Reverent Schwartz, and learned many languages including English, French, Italian and Latin. He enthusiastically took special interest in the enrichment of the Library, employing many Pandits to collect, buy and copy a vast number of works from all renowned Centres of Sanskrit learning in Northern India and other far-flung areas. During 1918 the Saraswathi Mahal Library was open to public.

The library is open to the public, it also supports efforts to publish rare manuscripts from the collection, as well as ensuring all volumes are preserved on microfilm. The Library has installed computers in 1998 for the Computerisation of Library activities. As a first phase, the Library catalogues are being stored in the Computer for easy information retrieval. It is also proposed to digitalise the manuscripts of this Library shortly.https://indiaculture.gov.in/thanjavur-mah-serfojis-sarawswathi-mahal-library-thanjavur 

Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Library (formerly Prince of Wales Museum), Mumbai: 

The Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Library, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum, is located in Mumbai. It is a primary source of information for curators, conservators, archaeologists, historians, artists, heritage conservationists, and students. It is one of the oldest reference libraries in the country, and scholars, post-graduate, and research students visit the library regularly for multiple reasons including for reference work, writing their thesis, and for access to research articles. The library has a rich collection of over 30,000 books, periodicals and journals, dictionaries, directories, encyclopaedias, atlases, gazetteers, reports of the Archaeological Survey of India, and reports on Indian Epigraphy. The books are mainly on ancient Indian history and culture, archaeology, art, architecture, numismatics, mythology, religion, anthropology, natural history, museology, conservation, history and civilisation, geography, Sanskrit literature, among other themes. The library also has a vast collection of catalogues of Museum and Art Galleries all over the world.

There is a massive collection of 200 rare books and manuscripts and these can be accessed only with special permission. The library is currently engaged in digitisation of its collection.

The library is open from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm and remains closed on Sundays & holidays. Graduate and Postgraduate students, Research Scholars and persons pursuing serious study are allowed to use the library. https://csmvs.in/

https://csmvs.in/library/ 

Indian Institute of Science Library, Bangalore:

The Indian Institute of Science Library, also known as the J.R.D. Tata Memorial Library, is one of the best Science and Technology libraries in India. It was started in 1911 and has become a precious national resource centre in the field of Science and Technology.

The library receives about 10-12% of the total budget of the institute annually. About 95% of the library grant is spent towards periodical subscription. With a collection of nearly 5 lakh volumes of Books, Periodicals, Technical Reports, and standards, the library is one of the finest in the country. Currently, it subscribes to over 14,000 current periodicals. The Library also maintains the IISc’s research publications’ repository, ePrints@IISc and Theses and Dissertations’ repository, etd@IISc.

The library is open 24 hours from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays and IISc Holidays, it is open from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. The library remains closed every January 26th, August 15th, and October 02nd. Off-campus access to most subscribed online journals and databases is available through Single Sign-on (SSO) without a VPN connection. https://iisc.ac.in/jrd-tata-memorial-library/

Kalakshetra Library, Chennai:

The Kalakshetra Library is part of the Kalakshetra Foundation, an arts and cultural academy dedicated to the preservation of traditional values in Indian art and crafts, especially in the field of Bharatanatyam dance and Gandharvaveda music. The foundation is based in Chennai, India, and was founded in January 1936 by Rukmini Devi Arundale and her husband George Arundale.

There are three libraries on the Kalakshetra campus:

Rukmini Devi Library: This library has a collection of 5219 books from Smt. Rukmini Devi’s private collection. It is not open to the public. 

Sankara Menon Library: The Sankara Menon library was started in March 1958, with a small collection of 1040 Books. At present, there are 10830 books related to dance, music, and fine arts. These books are available in various languages like English, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil Sanskrit, Hindi, Malayalam, and Grantham. 

Research Library: The library was started in March 2006. It has a collection of 3695 books for reference. Books on painting, music, dance, and religion, as well as manuscripts of Rukmini Devi’s dance-dramas are also available. It is open only to scholars, staff, and students. https://www.kalakshetra.in/services/library/

Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata:

The Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF), located in Kolkata, is a central autonomous organization established and fully financed by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The RRRLF is registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961. It is the nodal agency of the Government of India to support public library services and systems and promote public library movement in the country commensurate with the objectives as embodied in its Memorandum of Association.

The supreme policy-making body of RRRLF is called the Foundation. It consists of 22 members nominated by the Government of India from amongst eminent educationists, librarians, administrators, and senior officials. The Minister of the Department of Culture, Government of India or his nominee is the Chairman of RRRLF. Shri Gangapuram Kishan Reddy is the present Chairman of RRRLF and Prof Ajay Pratap Singh, Director General is the executive head and ex-officio Member-Secretary of the Foundation.

The Foundation works in close association and active cooperation with different State Governments and Union Territory Administrations through a machinery called State Library Planning Committee (SLPC/SLC) set up in each State at the instance of the Foundation. To participate in Foundation’s programmes, a State Government/U.T. is required to contribute a certain amount fixed by the Foundation. http://rrrlf.nic.in/

. RITU

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