CHRONOLOGY of the Research of ancient SANSKṚIT & PRĀKṚIT MSS. [8]
CHRONOLOGY of the Research of ancient SANSKṚIT & PRĀKṚIT MSS. [8]
From BĀBU RĀJENDRALĀLA MITRA, to CAPTAIN J. WATERHOUSE, B.S.C, Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal,—No. 47, dated Calcutta, the 15th February 1875.
I HAVE the honour to submit the following report on the operations carried on by mc to the close of 1874 for collecting information regarding Sanskrit manuscripts in Native libraries.
2. Objects of the enquiry.—Under the orders of Government, my attention has been steadily directed — 1st, to enquire and collect information regarding rare and valuable manuscripts; 2nd, to compile lists thereof; 3rd, to print all procurable unprinted lists of such codices, with brief notices of their contents; 4th, to purchase, or secure copies of, such of them as are rare or otherwise desirable.
3. Enquiry for MSS.: Places visited.—The work under the first head has been mainly conducted by a Pandit, who has been deputed to the Mufassil to visit the different private Ṭols or Sanskrit colleges and private gentlemen who are reputed to possess collections of Sanskrit MSS.; and I have been out on several occasions to help him. I have also been to Benares on three occasions to enquire for and purchase MSS. The places visited by the Pandit include the districts of Dacca, Nadiyā, Bardhwan, Hoogly, and 24-Pergunnahs. The large collections of Rājā Yatīndramohan Thākūr, of the late Sir Rājā Rādhākānt Dev, of the late Bābu Rāmkomal Sen, of the late Rājā Pītāmbar Mitra, of Bābu Subaldāsa Mallik, and of others in Calcutta, have also been examined. In Dacca Pandits are the only owners of MSS., no private gentlemen having anything like a large collection, and
the few works they have being mostly such as have already been printed. In Nadiyā the library of the Rājā of Kṛiṣṇanagar contains the largest number of Tantras; but at the time when my Pandit visited it the MSS. were kept in a very neglected state, and most of them were found to be defective. In Bardhwan there are not many Ṭols, but Bābu Hitalāl Miśra of Mānakara has a very choice collection of works, including a great number of very rare treatises on the Vedanta. In Hoogly the Serampur College has a small, but valuable, collection of MSS., procured principally by the late Dr. Carey, and there are also a few Ṭols owning MSS. In the 24-Pergunnahs several zemindars have good collections of the Tantras and the Purāṇas; and the numerous Ṭols on the left bank of the River Hoogly, and at Harinābhi and elsewhere, contain many old and rare works of which
very little is known to European Orientalists. There are no Maths (monasteries) in any of the districts named which contain a collection of Sanskrit works: not even the Math attached to the great temple of Tārakeśvara in the Hoogly district is noted for its literary treasures. The case is, however, different in Rājṣāhi, Maimansing, Pabna, Tirhūt, and Orissa, where some of the Maths own large collections of great age and considerable value.
4. Substance of MSS.: Paper.—The manuscripts examined are mostly written on country paper, sized with yellow arsenic and an emulsion of tamarind seeds, and then polished by rubbing with a conch-shell. A few are on white Kaśmīrī paper, and some on palm-leaf. White arsenic is rarely used for the size, but I have seen a few codices sized with it, the
mucilage employed in such cases being acacia gum. The surface of ordinary country paper being rough, a thick coating of size is necessary for easy writing, and the tamarind-seed emulsion affords this admirably. The paper used for ordinary writing is sized with rice-gruel, but such paper attracts damp and vermin of all kinds, and that great pest of literature the "silver-fish" thrives luxuriantly on it. The object of the arsenic is to keep off this insect, and it serves the purpose most effectually. No insect or worm of any kind will attack arsenicised paper, and so far the MSS. are perfectly secure against its ravages. The superior appearance and cheapness of European paper has of late induced many persons to use it, instead of the country arsenicised paper, in writing pothīs; but this is a great mistake, as the latter is not nearly so durable as the former, and is liable to be rapidly destroyed by insects. I cannot better illustrate this than by referring to some of the MSS. in the library of the Asiatic Society. There are among them several volumes written on foolscap paper which date from 1820 to 1830, and they already look decayed, mouldering, and touched in several places by silver fish. Others on John-letter paper,
which is thicker, larger, and stouter, are already so far injured, that the ink has quite faded and become in many places illegible; whereas the MSS. which were originally copied on arsenicised paper for the College of Fort William in the first decade of this century, are now quite as fresh as they were when first written. I have seen many MSS. in private collections which are much older and still quite as fresh. This fact would suggest the propriety of Government records in Mufassil Courts being written on arsenicised paper, instead of the ordinary English foolscap, which is so rapidly destroyed both by the climate and also by white-ants. To guard against mistakes, I should add here that the ordinary yellow paper sold in the bazars is dyed with turmeric, and is not at all proof against the attack of insects.
5. History of paper.—It is well known that originally the Hindus used leaves of trees for writing upon, whence the name of letters in Sanskrit has become pattra, and latterly newspapers have been designated by the same name. The oldest manuscript on paper I have seen is a copy of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, now in the possession of Bābu Hariśchandra of Benares. It bears date Samvat 1367 = A.C. 1310, and is consequently 565 years old. Its paper is of a very good quality; and judging from it, it is to be inferred that the people of the country must have, at the time when it was written, attained considerable proficiency in paper-making. Long before that time, in the reign of Bhoja Rājā of Dhārā, a work was written on letter-writing (the Prāsastiprakāsikā), and in it detailed directions are given for folding the material of letters, for leaving a large space on
the left side of such letters as margin, for cutting a portion of the left lower corner, for decorating the front with gold-leaf, for writing the word 'Śrī' a number of times on the back, &c., &c.—all which apply to paper, and cannot possibly be practicable on palm-leaf; and the inference therefore becomes inevitable, that paper was then well-known and in general use, though the word used to indicate it was pattra, probably very much in the same way as paper of the present day owes its name to papyrus. Again, a verse occurs in the Saṃhitā of Vyāsa, which must be at least two thousand years old, in which it is said "that the first draft of a document should be written on a wooden tablet, or on the ground, and after correction of what is redundant and supplying what is defective, it should be engrossed on pattra; "and it would be absurd to suppose that pattra here means leaf, for leaves were so cheap, that it would have been a folly to save them by writing on wooden tablets, which were much more costly. How long before the time of this verse paper was known, I have no positive evidence to shew; but the frequent mention in the old Smṛitis of legal documents (lekhya), of their attestation by witnesses, of their validity, &c., suggests the idea of there having been extant in olden times some material more substantial and convenient than palm-leaf for writing; and knowing that paper was first manufactured by the Chinese, long before the commencement of the Christian era, that the famous charta bombycina of Europe was imported from the East, and that block-printing was extensively practised in Tibet in the fourth century, I am disposed to believe that the Hindus must have known the art of paper-making from a very
early date. Whether they originated it, or got it from the Chinese through the Tibetans, or the Kaśmīrīs, who have been noted for their proficiency in the art of making paper and papier-mache ware, is a question which must await further research for solution. A priori it may be argued that those who manipulated cotton so successfully as to convert it into the finest fabric known to man, would find no difficulty in manufacturing paper out of it.
6. Palm-leaf.—The palm-leaf referred to above is not now much in use, except in Orissa, and in the Mufassil vernacular schools, as a substitute for slates. In Bengal the Chaṇḍī is the only work which is now-a-days written on palm-leaf, as there is a prejudice against the formal reading of that work from paper MSS.—a prejudice in many respects similar to what obtained in Europe against printed Bibles in the first century after the introduction of printing. Formerly two kinds of palm-leaf were in use : one formed of the
thick, strong-fibred leaflets of the Corypha taliera (tiret), and the other of the Borassus flabelliformis (tālapātā). The former is generally preferred for writing Sanskrit works, as it is broader and more durable than the latter, and many MSS. are still extant which reckon their ages by five to six hundred years. The leaflet of the Corypha elata is sometimes used in lieu of those of the taliera. The leaflets of all the three kinds of palms are first dried, then boiled or kept steeped in water for some time ; then dried again, cut into the required size, and polished with a smooth stone or a conch-shell. For school use no such preparation is necessary.
7. Bark.—The practice of writing on bark is of the greatest antiquity, and, from constant use, the Greek and the Latin terms for that substance, — biblos and liber,—have long since become the names for books, even as the name of the rolls of ancient parchment MSS. produced the term volume, and codes of laws have received their generic name from the bundles of boards on which they were written,— from codex, a tablet of wood. In the eastern districts this practice of writing on bark still prevails, and I have seen several codices of bark which formed thin sheets like veneer, eighteen inches by four ; but I have not been able to ascertain from what species of tree the article had been obtained. Some say that the tree called uara (Morunga hyperanthera) yields the best bark for writing upon ; but I have not seen it. The birch bark, Bhurjapattra (Betula bhurja), is extensively used as a material for writing upon; but only for amulets, it being too thin and fragile for books. I have by me a piece of this bark about a hundred years old, which, on a space of ten inches by eight, contains the whole of the Bhagavadgītā, written with letters so small that they are illegible to the naked eye, and require a magnifying glass to be read. It was evidently intended to be worn as an amulet enclosed in a locket of gold or copper, but it had never been so used. Whether the bhūrj bark was ever
pasted or glued into thick sheets I cannot say.
8. Wood, metal, and skin.—In the Sastras tablets of wood and metal have been recommended as materials for writing upon, and in former times copper-plates were usually employed for royal patents, and in Burmah they are still occasionally used for writing large works; but I have seen none now used by the Pandits of Bengal. Wooden tablets are
confined to petty traders' account-books in Bengal; but in the Northwestern Provinces poor people have some religious books written with chalk on blackened boards. In the Lalitavistara, or 'Legendary Life of Buddha', mention is made of sandal-wood boards which were handed to Sakya when he first commenced to write. In Europe parchment and
dressed skins of goats have been from time immemorial used as materials for books, and for durability they stand unrivalled; but I have never seen mention in Indian works of parchment, or dressed skin of any kind, as material for writing; and palimpsests are, of course, unknown.
9. Pens.—According to the Yoginītantra, bamboo twigs and bronze styles are unfortunate, and gold and reeds are the best for pens; but the universal practice among the Pandits of Bengal is to use the bamboo twig for pens, and only rich householders employ the vrinnala or khākrā reed. In the North-Western Provinces the reed or calamus, whence the Indian word kalama, is generally used, and bamboo pens are all but unknown. The latter however, when well-prepared, is much more elastic and durable, and it has the further and supreme advantage of being everywhere procurable without any cost. Crow-quills were formerly used for writing very small characters for amulets, but never for ordinary manuscripts. In Orissa, where letters are scratched, and not written, on palm-leaves, an iron style with a pointed end and a flat top everywhere replaces the bamboo twig and the calamus reed.
10. Ordinary ink.—The ink used for writing pothis is of two kinds: one fit for paper, and the other for palm-leaves. The former is made by mixing a cofTee-coloured infusion of roasted rice with lamp-black, and then adding to it a little sugar, and sometimes the juice of a plant called kesurte (Verbesina scandens). The labour of making this ink is great,
as it requires several days' continued trituration in a mortar before the lamp-black can be thoroughly mixed with the rice infusion, and want of sufficient trituration causes the lamp-black to settle down in a paste, leaving the infusion on top unfit for writing with. Occasionally acacia gum is added to give a gloss to the ink ; but this practice is not common, sugar being held sufficient for the purpose. Of late, an infusion of the emblic myrobalan, prepared in an iron pot, has occasionally been added to the ink; but the tannate and gallate of iron formed in the course of preparing this infusion are injurious to the texture of paper, and Persian MSS., sometimes written with such ink, suffer much from the chemical action of the metallic salts.
The ink for palm-leaf consists of the juice of the kesurte, mixed with a decoction of dltd. It is highly esteemed, as it sinks into the substance of the leaf and cannot be washed off. Both the inks are very lasting, and being perfectly free from mineral substances and strong acids, do not in any way injure the substance of the paper or leaf to which they are applied. They never fade, and retain their gloss for centuries.
11. Coloured ink.—To mark the ends of chapters, and for writing rubrics, colophons, and important words on paper, an ink made of cinnabar, or dltd, is sometimes used; and in correcting errors the usual practice is to apply on the wrong letters a colour made of yellow or red orpiment ground in gum-water, and, when it is dry, to write over it. Omissions of entire words and sentences, of course, cannot be rectified in this way, and they have therefore to be supplied by writing on the margin. Interlineation is generally avoided; but in old MSS., which have been read and revised by several generations, they are not altogether wanting. In commentaries the quotations from texts are generally smeared over with a little red ochre, which produces the same effect which red letters in European MSS. were intended to subserve ; whence the term 'rubric' got into currency. These peculiarities, however, are more prominent in the MSS. of the North-Western Provinces than in those of Bengal, and in palm-leaf codices they are generally wanting, except in Burmah, where some sacred Pall works are written with a thick black varnish on palm-leaves, throughout richly gilt, and wrought over with scrolls and other ornaments. Ordinary Burmese MSS. have the edges of the leaves painted and sometimes gilt.
12. Illustrations.—Illustrations are almost unknown in Bengal, but in Orissa they are frequently employed. The most noted place, however, for illustrations is Kasmir, and the finest and richest MSS. are usually produced in that province, the illuminations consisting of flowery initials, grotesque cyphers, single figures, historical compositions, marginal lines, and scroll borders; most of the illustrations are in the Moorish style.
13. Size, etc., of paper MSS.—The size of paper MSS. varies from eight to twenty inches by four to eight inches. The paper is folded so as to mark the margins and regulate the straightness of the lines. In the North-Western Provinces the paper is sometimes so folded as to retain two leaves together ; but in Bengal it is always cut into separate and distinct folia. Sometimes a board mounted with strong thread, tied at equal distances, is used for a ruler. The paper is laid flat on this board, and then pressed hard with a ball of cloth, whereby it receives an impression of the threads on its surface, and these impressions look very like vvaterlines. The leaves are written over lengthwise, leaving a uniform margin all round. The words are generally, but not always, separated by small spaces, and for punctuation the upright stroke, or dāndi, is freely used. No breaks are made to indicate the ends of paragraphs or sections; and should the writing at the end of a work terminate in the middle of a line, the line is filled up by writing the letter śrī, or stars, or the name of some god several times, until the line is completed, so that all the lines may be of uniform length. In the case of codices which contain both a text and a commentary, the text is written in large letters in the middle, and the commentary above and below it in smaller letters. This arrangement is called the trivalli form, and some tact is necessary in engrossing it. so that all the commentary on the given text may be comprised on the same page. The copyist's name is frequently given at the end, and also the date in Śāka or Saṃvat—rarely in Jupiter's cycles. The name of the place where the copy is made, and that of the party for whom it is made, are also occasionally given, but never the name of the reigning sovereign. A protestation sometimes occurs at the end, saying that the copyist has faithfully followed his text and is not responsible for errors.
14. Size, etc., ofpalm-leaf MSS.—Palm-leaf MSS. are, from the nature of the material, narrower and longer, and they are never ruled or folded, the veins of the leaf serving the purpose of ruling. A square space is usually left blank in the middle of the page, and in the centre of it around hole is punched for a string to pass through, for the purpose of tying the codex in a bundle. Very long MSS. have two such spaces and holes. The Tantras enjoin that the holes should always be punched—never cut with a knife, or produced by burning. The reason for this rule is obvious, as cutting or burning produces a hole with jagged sides, which are very apt to catch the string and cause a split in the leaf. A clean, punched hole allows the string to slide freely, and produces no injury. In Bengal some very old paper codices have the square blank space in the middle, but none has any hole bored in it. In the North-Western Provinces the blank space does not occur, and both in Bengal and the North-West the leaves are piled in a bundle between two boards, and then tied round in a piece of coarse cloth. Where the codices are small, with a view to economy several of them are usually tied in one bundle, and this causes much trouble in finding out any particular work when needed. For boards the spatha of the betel-nut tree, which yields a thick, coreaceous, pliant substance, is often substituted in the eastern districts, and they are found to be very useful, as they are not liable to warp, crack, or be attacked by insects.
15. Mode of preserving MSS.—In the houses of rich men a dry masonry room is generally assigned to MSS., where a sufficient number of shelves or chests are provided for the storage of the codices. But care is not always taken to open the bundles every now and then, and to exposethem to the sun for a few hours. In pakka monasteries, the same mode of preservation is also adopted ; and there being always some monk or other who can read, and who takes a delight in reading, the bundles are more frequently opened, aired, and dried. The Jains are very particular in this respect, and in their monasteries great care is usually taken of their literary treasures. The case is, however, very different as regards the Tols of Bengal. The men who own them are, with rare exceptions, very poor ; they live in low, damp, thatched huts of the meanest description; they have no means of buying proper cabinets for their manuscripts; and their time is so occupied by their professorial duties, and frequent peregrinations to distant places for earning the means of their livelihood, that they cannot often look after their books. The receptacle they usually assign to their MSS. is a bamboo frame placed across the beams of their
huts, exposed constantly to the damp emanating from the daily-washed mud floors of their rooms, and occasionally to leakage from ill-made and old thatched roofs; while mice and other vermin have full and free access to them at all times. The mice are particularly destructive, as they not only gnaw cloth, boards, and palm-leaves, but, by their liquid discharges, rapidly destroy the texture of arsenicised paper. The fact was first brought to my notice by a mukhtiyar when I was a boy. He asked my permission to put two sheets of fresh-looking, written, stamped paper for a night on the bottom of a cage of white mice, which were my pets. The permission was granted, and the next morning the papers were taken out, stained and decayed very like old documents, which they were, I then learnt, intended to pass for. I was also told and shewn that by careful and repeated washing with a mixture of the fluid discharge of mice with water, paper can be made to assume the appearance of any age that may be desired: the effect produced is not confined to the surface, but is perceptible even in the texture of the paper.
16. Copyists and copying.—Even as in mediaeval Europe monks were the principal copyists of ancient works, so have their congeners been the principal preservers of Sanskrit literature in India during the last ten or fifteen hundred years. Yatis, Sannyāsīs Gosāins, and their disciples congregated in large Maths, devoted all their leisure-hours,—the former to composing, and the latter to copying; and the monasteries benefited largely by their labours. In the Tols the pupils were, and still are, the principal copyists. In return for the board, lodging, and education they receive, free of all charge, from their tutors, they copy all such works as their tutors require, and thus the Ṭols are enriched. For the public, however, the principal copyists are the Kāyasthas. Old and used-up men of this caste, when no longer fit to earn their livelihood by active exertion, generally betake to copying ancient works for householders and private gentlemen, and the bulk of the MSS. now extant are due to their labours. Poor Brahmans also take to this occupation. Seated on their haunches, with the paper or palm-leaf resting on their raised knees, which serve for a table, and the pen and ink procured from materials everywhere
available, they ply their vocation without making any outlay, or subjecting themselves to any exertion which would be unsuited to their habits and time of life. The remuneration they formerly derived ranged from one rupee to two rupees eight annas per thousand slokas of thirtytwo thousand letters, according to the quality of writing. The rates have now been doubled, owing principally to the demand for copyists being limited, and very few taking to the profession. As a class these copyists are men of limited literary knowledge ; but generally speaking they are faithful to their duty, and reproduce the originals placed before them with fair accuracy.
17. Authenticity of MSS.—They rarely attempt to correct the errors and mistakes of the originals, and, to exonerate themselves from all charge of tampering the originals, they not unoften put a verse at the end of their works, saying, "As he has seen, so has he copied, and the copyist should not be blamed for mistakes." Clerical errors they are certainly liable to, and do commit ; but such errors are not numerous. One serious mistake they, however, sometimes commit,—it is that of copying in the body of the text notes and parallel or remarkable passages, which often occur on the margins of old and frequently-read codices ; and these consequently appear as parts of the texts in their works, and subsequent copying from their codices perpetuates the interpolation. This is, however, done through ignorance, and not through any wicked motive. Of fabrications and forgeries the Mahatmyas and local legends afford ready instances ; but they are due to Pandits, and not to copyists. Corrections made by Pandits when reading are necessarily perpetuated by copyists, and to them are principally due the numerous varise lectiones which are to be met with in Sanskrit writings. This evil has been of late greatly multiplied by incompetent editors, who print texts from solitary MSS., and replace doubtful readings and fill up lacunae by imaginary emendations. With a few praiseworthy exceptions the publications of the Bengali and Benares presses belong to this class, and they are much less trustworthy than even corrupt MSS. The plasticity of the Sanskrit language admits of even obviously incorrect readings being explained somehow, and the authenticity of the originals is thereby irretrievably ruined. The errors
of MSS. may be corrected by collation, for, though there are many faulty MSS., I have every reason to doubt that there are many falsified texts; but the fabrications in printed books issued by thousands cannot be readily detected and exposed. With so many causes at work to injure the authenticity of ancient Sanskrit works, and at a time when European Orientalists are so busily employed in tracing interpolations and corruptions which have already taken place, it would be futile to attempt in a report like this to enquire at length how far the charge may be sustained; but this much may be said, that the MSS. now extant do not shew any sign of dishonest fabrication; codices from three to four hundred years old, existing in different parts of India,—in Bengal, Madras, Bombay, and Kaśmīr,—are so closely similar in their readings that they produce no suspicion in the mind of their having been tampered with. What happened before that time it is not necessary for me to guess ; suffice it to say in the language of Isaac Taylor, that "the habitudes of eastern natioris undergo so little change in the lapse of ages that probably these descriptions of things as they are now would differ little from a similarly graphic account of the same operations dated a thousand years back. Where the arts of life remain in their rude state, all those operations which depend upon them continue nearly the same."
18. Age of MSS.—The oldest palm-leaf manuscript I have seen bears date Saṃvat 1189 = A.C. 1132, and the oldest paper manuscript, as aforesaid, is Saṃvat 1367 = A.C. 1310; but such records are exceedingly rare, and the general run is from 150 to 250 years. Among old MSS. taken to Europe, Dr. Weber in his invaluable catalogue of the Berlin Collection notices several codices ranging from four to six hundred years. Seeing that Charta bombycina has lasted in Europe for eight to twelve hundred years, this age, for works which claim to be from two thousand to three thousand five hundred years old, is very unsatisfactory; but the climate of Bengal, and the manner of keeping MSS. here, as above described, are highly unfavourable to their preservation for a long time,—not to advert to the wholesale destruction of MSS. in large Maths and richly endowed
temples, which must have resulted from the ravages of those whose coreligionists burnt the Alexandrine Library. Indeed, it is not remarkable that old MSS. are so rare, but that, notwithstanding such potent influences constantly at work, there should still exist in the country so many and such old MSS. as have been from time to time met with. A new influence is now at work for the destruction of MSS. The halo of sanctity which formerly surrounded Sanskrit literature is fast fading away: the ancient Hindu religion is gradually losing its hold on men's minds; Sanskrit is no longer a paying study; European literature is rapidly replacing it everywhere ; the venerable old Pandits,—the repositories of traditionaland book knowledge of ages, whose erudition was the profoundest, to whom no modern scholar, European or Asiatic, can for a moment be compared, and who have hitherto preserved with such unflinching zeal the oldest literary monuments of the Āryan race,—are rapidly dying out, and their places are not being supplied by the rising generation. For hundreds who formerly studied Sanskrit we have now scores; and there being little demand, very few new MSS. are being prepared to take the place of those which are crumbling down by age. Many works of great literary value and age have already disappeared, and others are in imminent risk, and, unless timely saved, will in half a century more be irreparably lost.
19. Accessibility of MSS.—Generally speaking, the heads of Ṭols are the only persons who have really old and scarce works. They know the value and history of the several works on particular branches of Sanskrit learning to which they severally devote their attention, and each tries his utmost to secure copies of all the leading and rare works bearing upon the subject of his study. It also often happens that the son takes up the subject in which his father was most proficient, and in some families for many successive generations the same subject has been studied, and the works collected by them are generally very correct and complete. But the worthy professors, deeply learned as they are, are not open to worldly influence, and are extremely shy and suspicious. In their estimation the most valued treasures they possess are their MSS., and they evince the
greatest reluctance to shew them to strangers. Ordinarily, they do not flatly refuse access to their stores, though some do so; but the passive resistance they offer is often insurmountable. The first day's visit is generally passed in conversation; on the second day a few of the commonest works are shewn ; on the third the proprietor is busy with other duties and has no time to bring out MSS.; on the fourth day he is not at home ; and so on. Several days are lost before a really good MS. is brought to light; and as my plan requires the copying of the initial and final lines, and an abstract of the contents, a great deal of valuable time is lost before a single collection is finally examined; and before this consummation can take place, it often happens that the owner of the MSS. is called away by a distant invitation or some other errand, and my travelling Pandit's work is brought to a stop. No possessor of a Ṭol has any catalogue or list of his MSS., and if by dint of repeating the names of a great number of rare works, the owner is made to acknowledge he has a particular work, very little advance is made towards getting access to it, for the bundles in which MSS. are kept are not numbered; and as from six to twenty different works find place in each bundle, the task of finding it out takes days, if it be forthcoming, which is not always the case. In the houses of private gentlemen access is readily given; but when visits have to be repeated for days, the party in charge of the library offers much passive resistance, and a great deal of time is lost to meet his convenience. If I could satisfy myself with bare names, the work could advance more expeditiously ; but as a work of this kind can only be done once, I think that it is better to lose some time than to produce a result which cannot be satisfactory to scholars. It is not at all likely that an undertaking of this nature will be attempted a second time.
20. Lists of rare works.—With a view to help the travelling Pandit, I have printed two lists of very rare MSS., for which he makes enquiries at every Ṭol. Copies of these lists have also been sent through the Director of Public Instruction to the heads of all the schools under his control; but as yet no satisfactory return has been obtained.
21. Compilation of a general list or inventory.—The work under the second head of my enquiry has been conducted by me with the assistance of a Pandit and a writer. The lists procured by the travelling Pandit, and by me through friends and correspondents, are regularly entered alphabetically in a large book, writing only the names of the MSS., their subjects, and the names of their owners. This book, when completed, will be an inventory of all the Sanskrit MSS. of value extant in Bengal. A compilation is next made from this record of all works which require to be noticed in detail, and the descriptive accounts are then written out in full.
22. Publication of Notices.—At first I was under an impression that separate lists of particular collections would be the best, as suggested in the orders of Government; but I soon perceived that it involved much unnecessary trouble and expense, and caused the repetition of the same names a great number of times. So it had to be given up. The nominal list referred to in the last preceding paragraph will, I think, when completed and published, supply the information fully and in a handy form. In the meantime my attention has been devoted to detailed notices of all works not included in the catalogue of the Asiatic Society's collection. Of these "Notices", two volumes and one part have already been published, comprising altogether 861 pages royal octavo, and descriptive accounts of 1,140 separate codices. For the sake of carrying on the printing while
my researches are in progress, no systematic arrangement is attempted, and manuscripts are noticed as they turn up. The inconvenience arising from this course is, however, obviated by annexing to each volume a classified table, and a full alphabetical index.
23. Contents of the Notices.—The number of Vedic works or portions of the Vedas in the published Notices is limited, and all of them have been seen or obtained at Benares, not a single codex having been seen in the possession of a Pandit of Bengal in the several Ṭols which have been visited. This total absence of the most important and most revered of Sanskrit works in the libraries of those who have been the principal custodians of Sanskrit literature is a remarkable fact, and it is usually accounted for by the Pandits by reference to a verse of the Yoginītantra which says: "Whoever keeps MSS. of the Vedas in his home soon finds his abode struck by lightning." The verse is obviously due to the sectarian zeal of the Tantra, which would admit of no rival in its neighbourhood; but the true cause, I believe, is that Bengal has never been the seat of a Vedic
school, and consequently it has never been taught here, nor MSS. prepared or preserved. It is said that when, on the overthrow of the Pāla Rājās, Ādisūra, the Hindu sovereign of Bengal, wanted to celebrate a great Vedic sacrifice, he could find no native Brāhman competent to officiate at it, and had to indent for five learned priests from Kanauj. These priests settled in the country, and gave new life to Hinduism everywhere; and many of their descendants have been noted as great scholars and distinguished authors;
but they do not seem to have cultivated the Vedas, and there is not a single treatise on the Vedas or Vedic learning among their writings. Their special forte has been philosophy, and works on the subject are abundant everywhere. The Nyāya schools of Tirhūt and Nadiyā have enjoyed deserved celebrity all over India, and every Pandit of any note has some work or other on the subject not common elsewhere. Works on the Vedānta are also numerous. The former class is represented in the published Notices by 98 treatises, and the latter by 67 codices. The Upaniṣads, as bearing on the Vedānta, are represented by 92 works. The Tantras come next to Nyāya; Bengal is particularly noted for them, and of them I have noticed 205 works, or parts of works. In my last report I have already given an account of the nature and character of this class of works. Grammar, Lexicography, Rhetoric, and other branches of Sanskrit learning are also fairly represented in my Notices, as will be evident from the following classified list:
—
I. Vedaśāstra
a. Saṃhitā (Hymns) 2
b. Brāhmaṇa (Ceremonials) 9
c. Āraṇiyaka (Ditto appropriate for forest-life) 2
d. Upaniṣad (Theology) 92
e. Vaidika (Sūtras, Rituals, Phonetics, etc.) 100
II. Aitihāsikaśāstra
a. Itihāsa (History) 15
b. Purāṇa (Ancient legends) 40
III. Kāvyaśāstra
a. Kāvya (Poems) 68
b. Nāṭaka (Drama) 14
c. Champū (Poetico-prose compositions) 8
d. Koṣa (Miscellaneous poetical collections) 60
e. Upākhyāna (Tales and romances) 16
IV. Abhidhānaśāstra (Lexicography) 30
V. Vyākaraṇaśāstra (Grammar) 29
VI. Chhandasśāstra (Versification) 7
VII. Alankāraśāstra (Rhetoric) 6
VIII. Jyotiṣaśāstra (Astronomy and Astrology) 61
IX. Smṛitiśāstra (Law, Civil and Canonical) 164
X. Sangītaśāstra (Music) 5
XI. Śilpaśāstra (Art) 3
XII. Kāmaśāstra (Erotics) 2
XIII. Darśanaśāstra (Philosophy)
a. Sānkhya (Hylotheistic) 1
b. Nyāya (Dialectic) 98
c. Vaiśeṣika (Physical) 0
d. Mīmāṇsā (Ritualistic) 3
e. Vedānta (Monotheistic) 67
f. Yoga (Theocratic) 13
g. Aparadārśanika (Minor systems of Philosophy) 2
XIV. Bhaktisastra (Faith)
XV. Tantrasastra (Mysticism) 205
XVI. Vaidyaka (Medical science) 44
XVII. Jainaśāstra (Jaina religion) 7
XVIII. Bauddhaśāstra (Buddhist religion) 0
XIX. Anirdiṣṭa (Miscellaneous) 7
Total 1,140
It should be noted that in making my selections I have been guided by a desire to exclude all works existing in the library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a descriptive catalogue of which is now in the press, and it is not desirable that the same works should be twice noticed. My work will, in conjunction with the catalogue of the Calcutta Sanskrit College and of the Asiatic Society, constitute a complete record of the bulk of the Sanskrit literature extant in Bengal; and as all the three works are being printed at the cost of Government, they may well be taken to be parts of one undertaking.
24. Facsimiles.—At the suggestion of Mr. Burnell of Mangalore, I have introduced in the last two fasciculi facsimiles of some of the more ancient and important MSS. noticed. When a sufficient number of these illustrations has been published, they will prove of much use in determining the age of manuscripts from the style of their writing, and as contributions to a knowledge of Indian palaeography.
25. Oudh catalogue.—While carrying my Notices through the press, I have been also engaged in editing a catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. existing in Oudh. Four fasciculi of this work have already been published.
26. Purchase of MSS.—Manuscripts are not marketable articles, as they do not readily find purchasers ; the people at large look upon them as worthless, and consequently there are no shops in Bengal for the sale of MSS., while the Pandits of the province, who are the principal owners of MSS., look upon them as treasures of inestimable value, never to be parted with on any account. I have, therefore, found the greatest difficulty in buying MSS. in Bengal. The case is different at Benares. From all parts of India, Pandits at an advanced age, leaving everything behind them except their MSS., repair to that sacred place to die, and on their demise hawkers purchase their stocks for a trifle, and subsequently sell them to pilgrims and others at a considerable profit; and my purchases have been made principally from these hawkers. The total of my acquisitions on account of Government comprises 656 codices, mostly entire works, some being fragments of larger treatises. Most of these have been purchased, a few being copied to my order. They may be thus classified:
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