Wikisource is an online library of free content publications and a relatively lesser known sister project of the Wikipedia. The Malayalam Wikimedia Community recently released the first offline version of Malayalam Wikisource.  This compact disc titled “Malayalam wiki grandasala – Thiranjedutha krithikal – Pathippu 1.0, June 2011″ (Malayalam Wikisource – Selected Books – Version 1.0) is a first of a kind,  perhaps the first offline Wikisource version in any language .  This is the second Wiki offline edition effort from the Malayalam community, who had released a selected articles CD of the Malayalam Wikipedia last year.  The Wikisource CD is released by Hisham Mundol, India National Programs, Wikimedia Foundation (by handing over the CD to the youngest Malayalam Wikimedian,  seven year old Sai Shanmugham) at the 4th Malayalam Wikimedia Meetup in Kannur, Kerala on 2011 June 11.

Malayalam Wikisource CD sticker By Rajesh Oodayanchal via Wikimedia Commons

This is considered as the biggest digital collection of free books in Malayalam language available on CD  available offline.  The project co-ordinators,  Shiju Alex wrote about the overall process and release and Santosh Thottingal shared a detailed description of the technical steps in the making of the CD.

The project page (വിക്കിഗ്രന്ഥശാല:സിഡി പതിപ്പ് 1.0) to coordinate the wikisource CD project was created on 2011 May 20 and it took just three weeks to release the CD.  The whole Malayalam Wikisource community participated in the selection process and proof reading and the making of the CD.  Santhosh Thottingal took care of the technology part as usual. Rajesh Odayanchal designed the sticker and the cover for the CD.

The collection includes:

• Selected Poems of Kumaranasan, Cherusseri Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, Kalakkaththu Kunchan Nambiar,  Irayimman Thampi, Ramapurathu Warrier.
• Malayalam Grammar :  Kerala Panineeyam by A R Rajaraja Varma.
• Folklore and Novels, such as Aithihyamala and Indulekha.
• Religious texts,  including the Bhagavad Gita, Adhyatma Ramayanam Kilippaatu,  Harinama Keerthanam, Geetha Govindam, the Bible (Sathya Veda Pusthakam), the Quran, the works of Sri Narayana Guru and various devotional songs.
• Communist Manifesto and Principles of Communism (Friedrich Engels)

Also included in the CD was a selection of images, related to Kerala,  from Wikimedia Commons.  The maps of India/Kerala state from the Malayalam wikipedia Map project is also part of this image collection.

The CD can also be downloaded as an .iso image, torrent or even browsed online.