Indian Antiquary Vol 33

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 21

JANUARY, 1904.)
SEARCH FOR HINDI MANUSCRIPTS.
17
AN ABSTRACT AOCOUNT OF THE SEARCH FOR HINDI MANUSORIPTS
FOR THE YEARS 1900, 1901 AND 1902.
BY SYAM SUNDAR DAS, B.A.
READERS of the Indian Antiquary need not be reminded of the fact that it was in 1868 that the Government of India, at the suggostion of the late Pandit Radhakrishna of Lahore, decided to institute a search for Sanskrit Manuscripts in the differont provinces of India, and the results regarding the ancient history and literature of India, which have been obtained by the consequent operations, sufficiently speak of the wise and fer-sighted proposal of the Pandit and amply justify the action taken by the Government of India. The importance of this policy impressed itself on the minds of the founders of the Nāgari-prechārini Sabhā of Benares in the very year of its foundation (1893). The Sabhả believed that a good deal of valuable information with regard to the history and literature of India, or at any rate of its northern portion, still lay buried in Hindi Manuscripts, which had not seen the light of the day, either through being jealously guarded by their owners or on account of the want of funds on the part of the latter to give the public the benefit of knowing their contents. In short, this Subhā, realising the difficulty it would have to face in overcoming the prejudices that still kept concealed the treasures of manuscripts, and being conscious that such an arduous undertaking could hardly be carried on without patience and tact, thought that if an attempt were made in Rājputānā, Bundelkhand, and parts of the United Provinces of Agra and Ondh and the Panjāb to catalogue the Hindi Manuscripts that could be found in those parts of India, sufficient data would be forthcoming to justify the carrying on of the operations on an extended scale under the authority and patronage of the Government. But the Sabhā, being then in its incipient stage and but too conscious of its inability to take up so onerous and expensive a work upon itself, addressed a representation to the Government of India and the Asiatic Society of Bengal, praying them to publish a list of such Hindi Manuscripts as could be found in Sanskrit Libraries, which were being, or which might in future be, searched and examined. The Asiatio Society expressed a hope to be able to meet the wishes of the Nāgari-prachärini Sabhā. Later on a similar answer was received from the Government of India as well. The search was commenced. by the Asiatic Society in the beginning of 1895, and, in all, some 600 manuscripts were noticed during that year. It is a matter of regret that the Society could not see its way to continue the search next year and to extend it further than Benares. It is a matter of still greater regret that the notices - nay, even a list of these 600 manuscripts - have not as yet been published.
The Government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was also approached by the Sabba on the subject, and it was pleased to instruct the Director of Public Instruction, United Provinces, to carry on the search of Hindi Manuscripts of historic value and literary merit simultaneously with and by the same agency as that employed in the search for Sanskrit Manuscripts. But these orders of the Government did not bring forth any appreciable results. The Sabha again approached the Government in March 1899 as to the necessity of doing something substantial towards the search and the cataloguing of valuable Hindi Mannscripts, with the result that it made an annual grant of Rs. 400 to the Sabhä towards carrying on this work and undertook to publish the Report which the Sabba wae to submit annually to the Government. The grant was commenced from the financial year 1900 and was increased by Rs. 100 in 1902. The Sabhã asked me to supervise and carry on the search for Hindi Manuscripts, and I have been able to submit three Annual Reports to the Government, the first of which is now in course of publication. As it will be sometime before these Reports aro pablished, I propose to give in the following pages a tabular account of the works I have been able to notice during the past three years, so as to inform scholars of the work that is being done and to solicit their co-operation and sympathy. I am, further, anxious to give publicity to my conclusions about several points connected with the history and literature of India, so that