VADODARA: Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III is credited with gifting Baroda state with one of the finest library systems in the country in 1910 that culminated with Central Library coming up in 1931 in the city. While the library in Vadodara may be called merely the Central Library, a library in the historical Banaras Hindu University(BHU) is actually named after the visionary ruler.

The Sayajirao Gaekwad Library at BHU, coincidentally, is also referred to as the central library as it is the apex library of the library system of the university that is touted to be the biggest library of a university system in the country. The library derives its name from the fact that the visionary ruler had donated Rs two lakh, a handsome sum in those days, to complete the dream of freedom fighter and educationist Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who had founded BHU with cooperation of great personalities like Dr Annie Besant. The university was created under a Parliamentary legislation - BHU Act 1915.

BHU's university librarian Dr Ajay Kumar Srivastava said Malaviya had wished that a grand building be built for the library. "He used to contact several persons who could help him in connection with the university. Sayajirao was one of them," he said.

The construction of the library building began after the donation in 1927 and the library moved into the new posh building in the year 1941. This was a big leap for the library that was already emerging as one of the premier academic libraries in the country.

The library germinated from a precious collection donated by professor P K Telang in the memory of his father justice KT Telang in 1917 and was housed in the Telang Hall of the Central Hindu College. With the university taking shape, the library was also shifted in 1921 to the Central Hall of the Arts College, now the arts faculty of the university till it was shifted to the new plush building made with donations from Sayajirao.

The National Mission for Manuscripts has recognized the library as Manuscripts Conservation Centre for its rich collection of manuscripts. Srivastava said the library system in BHU for which the Sayajirao Gaekwad Library is the nodal centre has around 15 lakh volumes.