Operation In Search of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Mumbai Circle 1

Author(s): P Piterson
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 15

OPERATIONS IN SEARCH OF SANSKRIT MSS.
his carcer; and it is substantially the arrangement under which we are now together prosecuting the search. What follows then is a statement of my own operations in the joint work for that portion of the past year during which I was entrusted with part of it.
The close of the monsoon term set me free from my College duties, and on the 18th of September I left Bombay for Jeypore.* My specific object in beginning with Jeyporo was to ascertain whether the copies kindly ordered by the Jeypore Durbar to be made of such books in the Royal Library as appeared to Dr. Bühler to be desirable acquisitions had been made; and, if possible, to secure them. On my arrival, I called on Major Prideaux, then Acting Resident at Jeypore, who had already promised to interest himself in this matter,
* On the way I took occasion to visit Mount Abu. Beyond an A bumaha tm ya m, which purported to be a part of the Sivapurana, and which did not seem to be worth the trouble of copying (the owner not being willing to part with it), this digression did not, of course, offer anything directly connected with the object of my tour : and a detailed account of the many places of surpassing interest on the hill would be out of place here. I should like howover to say that having had the good fortune to be admitted within the shrine at Achaleswara, where the mark of the toe of the god Siva is to " be seen unto this day," and having carefully examined that mark, I am disposed to think that it contains the explanatiou of the curious knob on the left of the figure of the Pramara prince, which stands facing the temple of Vasishtha at the other end of the hill. The one is an exact copy of the other; and the "toe-nail of the devil” was probably one of the cherished insignia of the royal house of the time. I was able to secure admittance both to this shrine and to that of Vasishtha. It may be worth saying hero that my almost uniform experience in that matter leads me to believe that any traveller who does not scraple to show, by outward symbol, that he respects the reverence in which these sacred places are held, will be allowed free entrance, and will be treated with all courtesy. To be able to speak Sanskrit is of course often an additional recommendation ; though many of these shrince are now in the keeping of men who cannot speak two words of that language. There may be circumstances in which persons officially representing the government of the country, or an alien charch, may hesitate to comply with the condition universally attached to such a concession. No such considerations need trammel the scholar in search of knowledge. And as far as personal feelings are concerned, I do not envy those of the man who can stand before the ruined shrine of Vasishtha, or enter the porch of the Karli cave, while fancy conjures op thc innumerable company of men and women who have worshipped where he now is, without saying to himself, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet : for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.