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Preface
The present Catalogue No. (XII) includes some 3313 works (Accn. I to 4096) of the Udaipur-collection. In all we have 6873 manuscripts in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsa, Hindi, Rajasthani etc. out of which 2752 were transferred from the Saraswati Bhawan Library of the State times; 2827 received by donation and some 1113 manuscripts purchased from manuscript dealers. Among the donors we cannot forget the valuable treasure acquired from Shri A.K. Derashri, who has donated as many as 2814 manuscripts collected by his father the late Pt. Ravi Shankar Derashri of Banera.
The Udaipur branch is unique in so far as it possesses a rare collection of illustrated manuscripts on classical and poetical themes contained in works like the Arṣa-Rāmāyaṇa, Bhagavad-gitā, Durga Sapta-Sati, GitaGovinda, Gaja-cikitsa etc.
The collection is equally rich in a large number of historical and literary works. The Cikitsa Sūtra (2815) of Madhava dated A.D. 1406 and the Suśruta Samhita (Kalpasthāna) dated A.D. 1407 are the oldest in the lot. Several works are more or less 500 years old including a number of rare Sanskit works which could not find a mention in Aufrecht's 'Catalogus Catalogorum' of Sanskrit works.
Besides the textual and physical details of the manuscripts given in eleven columns, those marked with the letter 'I' are extremely rare and valuable and sparingly find a mention in the catalogues of other prominent Indian libraries. Space does not permit to give even a running notice of all such manuscripts. However, we cannot resist the temptation of giving hints about some of them. The 'Rajyabhiṣeka paddhati'(625) compiled by Cakrapāņi Miśra in A.D. 1652 is adapted from earlier works on rituals but it preserves the details actually observed during the coronations. The compilation was made at the instance of Rana Pratap of Mewar. The Amarasara (2359) of Jivandhara is a historical work dated A.D. 1628 written during the reign of Amar Singh I. Leaving aside the political history of Mewar, this work gives an account of the favourite pastimes of the court of Amar Singh. The Jagat Simha Kavya (2365) of Raghunatha, a contemporary of Jagat Singh I, is again a historical poem in the usual panegyric style, but it also furnishes details