Sorting, Scanning, Digitizing, and Archiving Epigraphs for Archaeological Survey of India

The Archaeological Survey of India is the Custodian of 100,000 Estampages (an impression of an inscription made on inked paper) that have been safely kept for many years for research and archiving purposes. These Estampages are impressions of an inscription on copper and stone made onto inked paper in different Indian languages.

Challenge

The client wanted a company that could provide a complete solution of scanning, digitizing, and archiving, with a web platform specially designed for 100,000 Epigraphs of various shapes and sizes and as a part of the world memory store it in the Arctic world archive. These epigraphs vary from a few inches to 100 feet long, and ASI has been trying to get them scanned and digitized for a very long time.

Solution

The Indian Ambassador to Norway Dr. B. Balabhaskar reached out to the Ministry of Culture for depositing precious cultural data from India for deposit in the World Memory Vault (Arctic World Archive) at Svalbard. Discussions with the Archaeological Survey of India opened up an opportunity wherein ASI wanted to digitize and then archive these Epigraphs. Piql plugin partner with huge expertise in scanning all kinds of objects also came aboard and a solution was presented to ASI which was greatly appreciated, and a commercial order ensued.

This project is a combination of Piql India, Piql AS, and a Plug-in Partner, where the plug-in partner was able to provide world-class services along with a Piql Archival solution and a complete project will be delivered to the client with the world’s best practices and cutting-edge technology under 1 umbrella. Team Piql introduced its 360-degree solution which includes Scanning, Digitizing, Indexing, Cataloging, Meta Tagging, Website Development, and Archiving of 100,000 Epigraphs

Future

Post scanning, digitizing, and archiving of these Epigraphs on Piql Film, one additional copy will be deposited in the Arctic World Archive and One will remain with ASI