Report On Search For Sanskrit MSS Year 1882 1883

Author(s): R G Bhandarkar
Publisher: Government Central Book Depot

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Thus the total number of manuscripts in the collections is 4,482, of which 78 have been lent to scholars in Europe, 68 in India, and 13 in America, while 113 have been sent to be catalogued, 22 to Professor Kielhorn, 33 to Professor Pischel, and 58 to Professor Jacobi. In all 273 manuscripts are out, and the rest, 4,209, are in the library.
Palm-Icaf Manuscripts.
Ages of Manuscripts. Of the 4,482 manuscripts about a third bear dates. There are 108 written on palm-leaves of which 37 are dated. Three were transcribed in Samvat 1138, 1145, and 1146, corresponding to 1082, 1089, and 1090 of the Christian era; cight, from Saivat 1164 to 1218, i.e. from 1108 to 1162 A.D.; twenty, from Samvat 1260 to Kali 4398, i.e. from 1204 to 1297 A.D.; and six, from Samvat 1359 to 1450, i.e. from 1303 to 1394
A.D.
The earliest paper manuscript in the collection was transcribed in 1376 Samvat, Paper Manuscripts. corresponding to 1320 A.D., and there are eight bearing dates from 1426 to 1454 Samvat, i.e. from 1370 to 1398 A.D. There are 48 transcribed in the first half of the fifteenth century of the Christian era and 91 in the latter half. In some of the published lists an earlier date than 1376 Samvat occurs against one or two manuscripts; and one is represented to have been transcribed in Samvat 1401. I have examined the manuscripts themselves and found all these entries to be erroneous. I have however not been able to examine one manuscript the date of which is in the list given as 1415 Samvat, as it has been lent. The rest of the dated manuscripts were transcribed after the close of the fifteenth century.
Manuscripts written on palm-leaves are found in Gujarat and Mârvâd, principally at Cambay, Pâṭan,