Formerly known as the Oriental Library, the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) at Mysore, India, is a research institute which collects, exhibits, edits, and publishes rare manuscripts written in various scripts like , Brahmic (Sanskrit, Kannada), (Nandinagari), Devanagari (Sanskrit), Grantha, Malayalam, Tigalari, etc.
It is located at the northern end of Krishnaraja Boulevard (adjacently opposite to Mysore University's Crawford Hall), in the architecturally attractive Jubilee Hall built in 1887 to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria's accession to the British throne.
The library features rare collections such as the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics by James Hastings, A Vedic Concordance by Maurice Bloomfield, and critical editions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Its most famous publications include Kautilya's Arthashastra, written in the 4th century BC, edited by Dr. R. Shamashastri, which brought international fame to the institute when published in 1909.
One day a man from Tanjore handed over a manuscript of Arthashastra written on dried palm leaves to Dr Rudrapatnam Shamashastry, the librarian of Mysore Government Oriental Library now ORI.
[1] In this context, my mind remembering a day which was the His Excellency Krishnaraja Wodeyar went to Germany at the time of Dr. R. Shamashastry were working as a curator of Oriental Library, Mysore, The King sat in a meeting held in Germany and introduced himself as the King of Mysore State.
The Oriental Research Institute is featured in the 2014 mystery thriller novel The Emperor's Riddles by Satyarth Nayak.