Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Tanjore Vol 19

SR No.: 020244
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: P P S Shastri
Publisher: Government of Madras
Publication Year: 1934
Total Pages: 260
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Catalogue
File Size: 14 MB

Page 54

maintained as a Public Library in trust for the public and removed the Library and one lakh of rupees to provide for its up-keep, from the subject matter of the suit. The Government of Madras in G. O. No. 1306 Home (Education), dated 5th October 1918, Accordingly took possession of the same under the Charitable Endowmeats Act and have fraped a scheme for the management of the same.
Since the Library becarne a Public Trust there has been a marked improvement in the reception accorded to it by the public. Various liberal and generous-minded benefactors have come for. ward with magnanimous offers. The Library has been enriched with several very fine collectioda of manuscripts, every one of them rare, valuable and very interesting. The Kagalkar collection, Jabmunātha Bhat Låndagai collection and the Patanga Avadhūta collection-alltbese three alone pamber 2181 manuscripts. Besides these, the Tyagaraja Svāmi collection wbich alone contains more than 1000 manuseripts ; then the minor collections--the Subrah. magya Sastri collection, Subrahmanya Rao collection, Rāmacan. dra Ganapat collection, Nilakantha Sastri collection, Devasantara Tāwker collection, Gopålaksana Davalekar collection, and Krimmāji Metha collection--all are of great and paramount importance.
The manuscripts are either on palm leaf or on paper. They are of very different value and come from very different sourc6b. A large collection of these are recent Nāguri copies of manuscripts in South Indian characters and are at least a century old.
These manuscripts are in more than eleven distinct alphabets being from all parts of India. On the whole, one may easily Bay that the total number of manuscripts now in this Library.is likely to exceed 30,000,
A large number of original records belonging to the last reigoing house of Tanjore which will be of very great importance for reconstructing the political and social history of the Mabratha role in Southern India has recently been transferred to the care of this Library from the Civil Court by order of the Judge.
Besides these manuscripts there are also & number of books and Manuscripts in almost all the Indian and European languages and on almost all branches of buman knowledge. Special mention