The Adyar Library and Research Centre was founded in 1886 by theosophist

Henry Steel Olcott Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (2 August 1832 – 17 February 1907) was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer, Freemason and the co-founder and first president of the Theosophical Society. Olcott was the first well-known American of Euro ...

. The library is at the

Theosophical Society Adyar The Theosophy Society was founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1875. The designation 'Adyar' is sometimes added to the name to make it clear that this is the Theosophical Society headquartered there, after the American section ...

in Adyar, near

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

History

founded the "library Olcott" in December 1886. Olcott's small private collection of approx. 200 books in 24 languages was the core of library. During his travels in Asia, Olcott acquired more and often rare books for the library. After Olcott's death in 1907, the library was continued by other theosophists. Today, the library has approx. 250,000 books and 20,000 palm leaves. The library is today among the most important orientalist libraries in the world. The library was at first situated inside the headquarters of the Theosophical Society. In 1966 it was moved to a separate building, ''the Adyar Library Building''. It also has a public museum that shows old books and manuscripts. The Adyar library is also used by post-graduate students in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and

Indology Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

of the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

. In 1990, a bequest by the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

philanthropist Elliston Campbell (1891 – 1990) further funded the Adyar Library and founded the Campbell Theosophical Research Library, in Sydney, Australia.Campbell Theosophical Research Library
Retrieved 25 July 2013. The

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

is trying to preserve the old works in the Adyar library with modern techniques.Projects on South Asia
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References

External links

Image of the library
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* {{Authority control Theosophy Libraries in Chennai Library buildings completed in 1966