Bibliographic Survey of Indian Manuscript Catalogues

Author(s): Subhash C Bishwas, M K Prajapati
Publisher: Eastern Book Linkers

Page 18

(xvii) As stated earlier, there are various types of manuscript catalogues. They were mostly published by the institutions which have collections of manuscripts. The standard practice is to arrange institutions / collections according to their locations. Hence all the catalogues are arranged under one alphabetical order by the names of their locations, followed by the names of the institution/collection, where the manuscripts were located. Janert (1965) also followed this geographical principle for arranging the catalogues in his bibliography. In deciding place names we followed the same form as printed on the title pages of the documents. If there are more than one institution in one location then the names of the institutions are arranged alphabetically under the place name. Where there are several catalogues published by one institution, the catalogues are grouped under languages, then arranged chronologically by their dates of publication.
Institutions usually prepare first a hand list of a collection and then publish the same as a catalogue at a later date. As a printed catalogue is of greater value to a scholar than a hand list, we have first entered the title of the printed catalogue followed by the hand list, where applicable. Apart from institutional catalogues, there are several catalogues published covering a region, state or country; in all such cases, entries have been made under the country or region. Thus,
Bombay Presidency China
United Province Works like general bibliographies, notices of surveys of Sanskrit manuscripts or catalogues of collections prepared by one single person but not related to any specific place or institution, have been arranged under personal names of the author/ compiler of the catalogue. Thus,
Aufrecht, Theodor : Catalogus Catalogorum; Mitra, Rajendralal : Notices of Sanskrit Manuscripts Sastri, Haraprasad : Notices of Sanskrit Manuscripts
Sen, S. N.: Bibliography of Sanskrit works on Astronomy. Where a catalogue is not related to an institution or place and is prepared by several persons or if it is an annonymous work, it has been entered under the title of work.
Thus,
BrhaftippanikanāmprācTnajainagranthastīct
New Catalogus Catalogorum In the descriptive part of the entries English words /names have been used as a general rule substituting Indian language terms, e.g., Ahmedabad for Amdevad, Editor for Sampadaka, Compiler for Sangrahaka, etc.