This workshop is open to all interested students and scholars with some command of Sanskrit and basic knowledge of Indian scripts. Mr. Shaji will inter alia give practical advice on how to determine the material of manuscripts, and outline the characteristics of some South Indian scripts, their relation to each other and their development. He will also share his thoughts on how undated manuscripts may be approximately dated, based on material and script. All participants of the workshop are invited to prepare specific questions related to South Indian codicology, which will then be adressed and discussed.

P. L. Shaji is a retired self-drawing officer of the University of Kerala, where he worked as Manuscript Assistant in the Department of the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library (ORIML) for more than 35 years. Today he continues to work as a project assistant at the ORIML and the Manuscript Research Center of the National Mission for Manuscripts of the Ministry of Culture, New Delhi, and gives lectures in India and abroad.