Bhandarkar Report 1904
BHANDAKAR REPORT on the search of Prākṛit and Saṃskṛit manuscripts 1904 [64 of 69]
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64. It is impossible for Government to prevent an individual or a body from doing what he or it likes with what is his or its own. Nor can they buy more than a very limited number of manuscripts, even if the owners be willing to sell them so openly. And should they be willing to buy that limited number and, with that purpose, were to notify widely their intention, their motives might be misinterpreted and various wild exaggerated versions of the notice might be set agoing. The States might perhaps be encouraged to form collections. They might be asked to take steps to bring home to the minds of their subjects the very unpatriotic nature of the way in which ancient Indian literature was being allowed to go to ruins and to notify publicly their intention to purchase the more important of the manuscripts in order to save them from destruction and to preserve them carefully in places where those can make good use of them who want to do so. The condition, however, of too many of the libraries of manuscripts, which some of the States are already possessed of, gives very little ground for hope in that direction. As a first measure, therefore, the duty of preserving this ancient literature must be strongly impressed on the State Darbars, as has recently been done in the case of ancient monuments.
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