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INTRODUCTION
Manuscripts in India have a long tradition. They were produced in all parts of the country ; they are in many languages and scripts and on a wide range of religious, philosophical, historical, literary and scientific subjects. Frequently they have rich illuminations and illustrations of outstanding quality, in a great variety of schools and styles of miniature painting. In some periods and places in India their importance to the history of the development of painting is great. Everywhere they are a reflection of profound and wide-ranging learning, and of the richness, variety and long history of Indian culture.
The exhibition of manuscripts described in this catalogue, organized on the occasion of the meeting in New Delhi of the XXVI International Congress of Orientalists, surveys in less than two hundred examples the history of manuscripts in India, as represented by surviving works. The majority of important manuscript collections in the country have been generous in lending to it. Obviously not all the great manuscripts of India and in India are included, but many of the finest in their respective categories have been brought to Delhi for the exhibition. The exhibition therefore provides a rare and convenient means of obtaining a sampling of the quality and variety of this field, and brings together for comparison some works normally far distant from one another.
Some of the manuscripts in the exhibition have been published, or at least have been described or referred to in publications familiar to experts; most are undoubtedly known to some specialists; others are probably brought to the attention of international scholarship for the first time in this exhibition and its catalogue. For that reason as thorough descriptions as possible, in those respects useful for scholarly reference, have been provided. These descriptions are based on the detailed information furnished by the lenders, which they sent most conscientiously, and for which the National Museum is most grateful to them. Illustrations were a greater problem and unfortunately had to be limited to a few from outstanding manuscripts for which colour blocks could be secured.
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