National Library of India, National library in Alipore, Kolkata, India.
The National Library of India stands on the Belvedere Estate and houses over two and a half million books, records, eighty-six thousand maps, and three thousand two hundred manuscripts. The complex spreads across several buildings and reading rooms where collections are organized by subject and language.
The institution was founded in eighteen thirty-six as the Calcutta Public Library and transformed into the Imperial Library in nineteen hundred and three. After Indian independence it received its current name in nineteen fifty-three and became the central national repository.
The institution preserves collections in fifteen Indian languages, reflecting the linguistic diversity of the country within a single building. Visitors can view nineteenth-century materials in Hindi and other regional languages that document the beginning of printed literature across the subcontinent.
The complex opens on weekdays from eight in the morning until eight in the evening and allows citizens over eighteen to register online. Digital resources can be accessed through the network, though some materials must remain on site for consultation.
During restoration work in two thousand and ten, workers discovered a hidden chamber of roughly one thousand square feet (93 square meters) within the building. The room had been walled off and may have served a special purpose during the colonial period, though its exact function remains unclear.
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