It was founded in 1912 by the scholar and philanthropist Mahesh Chandra Bhattacharya (1858-1944),[1] growing out of the earlier private library of the traditional Sanskrit school called the Īśvara Pāṭhaśālā Ṭol (or Iswar Pathsala Tol).
According to a recent article, "many of the manuscripts were donated by local families who gave up their household libraries on the eve of the British colonial period for the sake of preserving them.
"[2] The Rāmamālā Library collection includes approximately 9,000 palm-leaf and paper manuscripts, mostly from the early modern period (roughly 1700-1900 AD).
[3] "The known contents of the library include works of literature, poetics, philosophy, grammar, medicine, astrology and theatre," notes Benjamin Fleming, "but despite early efforts by various scholars, the full scope of the collection remains unknown.
It also become an important research centre in Religious Studies due to its collection of printed books on different faiths like Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Jainism.