Gnanalaya (Tamil: ஞானாலயா or ஞானாலயா ஆய்வு நூலகம்) 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.