Noting down oral reports: The accounts of local history from the Mackenzie Collection (A04)

• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2011 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 181924784

The 19th century in Tamil Nadu is marked by the transfer from manuscript to print and a large-scale takeover of the institutions of learning on the part of the colonial government, resulting in the loss of traditional knowledge because learned men were no longer able to make a living by working at noblemen’s courts or monasteries, although some of these were taken over by colonial institutions. This project will focus on a new type of manuscript, produced for the ‘Mackenzie Collection’ (today GOML) by Mackenzie’s Indian collaborators, who noted down oral accounts of local events, customs and institutions, mixing possible facts with myths and legends attested in the earlier literary production and creating a new form of historiography.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 950: Collaborative Research Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures
• Applicant Institution: Universität Hamburg
• Project Head: Professorin Dr. Eva Wilden