Gnanalaya Explained

Gnanalaya is one of India's largest private libraries with rare first edition books,^[1] founded by B. Krishnamurthy and his wife Dorothy.^[2]

Location

The library is situated at Palaniappa Nagar, Thirukkokarnam in Pudukottai, Tamil Nadu, India. It has been built at a height of 14 feet with windows at nine feet to let natural light and air work wonders.^[2]

Collection

Having more than 15,000 titles in English and 70,000 titles in Tamil it has a large collection of rare first editions of Tamil books^[1] and had selected treasures. This library was instrumental in reviving old and out of print, resulting in more than 3000 books being reprinted.^[2]

Selected First Editions

• Veeramamunivar's 'Sathur Agarathy' (1842)
• French-Tamil Dictionary (1855)
• Tamil-Latin dictionary (1867)
• Standard edition of the Thiruvarutpa (1887)
• Vedanayagam Pillai's first novel 'Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram'

Other selected treasures

• Letters of Rajaji
• Bharathiyar's daughter Thangammal Bharathi's first editions of Bharathi and Bharathidasan
• Revolutionary magazines 'Kudiarasu', 'Viduthalai'
• Gandhi's 'Harijan'
• Back issues of 'Reader's Digest' from the first Indian edition
• Tamil literary magazines from 1920 to 2010.

External links

• Gnanalaya Research Library, Pudukottai, in Tamil
• Gnanalaya - Digital Library for International Research (DLIR)
• Gnanalaya Research Library, in Tamil
• Stalin donates 370 books, The Hindu, Trichy, 30 March 2017

Notes and References

1. http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/the-book-collector/article4422150.ece The book collector, The Hindu, 17.2.2013
2. http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/bonding-with-books/article819772.ece Bonding with books, The Hindu, Metroplus, Trichy, 9.10.2010