Why this archive exists ?

We live in an era where information is expected to present itself with its volume, veracity and velocity. It has become increasingly harder for anyone to find and learn the nature of evidence behind it, let alone analyze it for further exploration. Evidence based stories provide the context and process that are accountable for the narration. With explosion in digital content, scarcity of time to connect with the evidence proportionally grew. This archive will be in continuous operation to provide such evidences, whose organizational conceptions emerged from practicing history in a collaborative way.

Archive provides the means to organize and disseminate evidence(primary sources) that has historical value. We have organized the curated primary sources by first working with it, through collaboration. This collaboration helped greatly in organizing the sources we curated through a particular conception. Conventional forms of archive primarily curate textual records that brings a default perspective through history can be interpreted. Although attempts were made in Critical Archival Studies, customizing the archival repository needs consistent and intertwined work between the collaborating organizers, that covers multiple disciplines of work.

We envision this archive to be a evidence repository, for illuminating the space of Practices grounded in a particular Geographical and Temporal scope. The curated information spans between 9CE to 14CE situated in Medieval South India. The repository constitutes primary sources like palm leaf manuscripts, paper manuscripts, metrological instruments, and associated field work documents, etc...

How do we Organize it ?

To organize the evidence curated and the corresponding information, is a long term process. However, how is it organized defines the possibilities of exploration, navigational guidance, collaboration, questioning etc. In such sense, making the evidence more meaningful is closely related to how the information is contextualized. Context setting is basically laid out based on exploring the relationship between practices followed at the site of learning, working and among the people.

Computational apparatus that was taught and learned in school (Tiṇai Paḷikūdam) using mnemonics and memory, found to be later used in specific occupational practices. For instance, Pedagogical text like Eṇcuvaḍi and Kaṇakkaṭikāram taught in the schools pose mathematical problems which might be later used in accounting practices. Moreover, familiarity of mathematical problems and their solutions, among the people in the form of recreational riddles also seem to use the computational practices taught in the school.

[Q - Dr. D. Senthil Babu's Thesis, Book]

School, Work and People

Learning, Practicing and recreational use of mathematics is weaved into the social through the practices like Teaching, Artisanal occupations like Carpenting, Sculpting, Boat making, Metal working, Astrology, etc... Such practice are manifests/echoes in tools and texts of practice. Such available evidence of tools, and the texts provide us with rich set of records that enables us to uncover the relationship between the Text, Practice and the Practicioner.

Use the provided topics to explore through these facets.

[Q-Matakku story, Kōl)]

Our exploration through the archive of texts, museum of tools and objects helped us question the interdependency of:

• Tools, Measuring instruments at the site of Work
• Text used for learning mnemonic tables, relevancy of them at the site of Work by the Practitioner

Understanding the complexity of determining value using the measures, numbers, computational apparatus, calculation becomes possible only when the text, tool, and practitioner meet together.

[Q-Fieldwork, Ethnography with Artisans, workshops]