Sambodhi 2018 Vol 41

Author(s): J B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 16

Vol. XLI, 2018
Reflections on Manuscriptology:
pride and interest in acquiring and preserving Mss in whatever way they could, but after independence, the political scenario changed and the patronage, Mss had received from the princely states, in some cases, decreased considerably. Some of the collections were converted into oriental research institutes/ libraries, like the ones at Baroda, Mysore, Thiruvananthapuram, Thanjavoor, Varanasi, Darbhanga and so on. There is still a sizeable number of collections in the custody of their owners who were large and small princely states. Notable among these are the collections at Jodhpur, Udaipur, Kangra, Varanasi, Jammu and many more.
Some of the oriental research institutes became part of neighbouring universities like the ones at Baroda, Tirupati, Thiruvananthapuram, Mysore, Darbhanga and Varansai. The likes of Government Oriental Research Inst at Hyderabad and Tanjavur library are directly controlled by the government.
There are autonomous institutions also that have very significant and large collections of Mss like the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute at Pune and the Asiatic Society at Calcutta and Bombay to name only a few. Besides, several libraries in older universities such as Bombay, Calcutta, Patna, BHU, AMU, Kashmir University etc. have got a sizeable number of Mss in their collections.
There are large collection of manuscripts in national and state museums, in different archives and also in very many private museums. Here, it is necessary to point out that these repositories are not the only collection of Mss in the country, a still undocumented and therefore, unconfirmed number is held in individual collections of traditional scholars.
After the patronage from some of the princely states depleted the work of preservation, conservation and safe keeping of Mss was left in the hands of financially ill-equipped and man power wise untrained hands. The situation, even to this day, has not changed much. Therefore, there has been a steady decline in the number of referable Mss in the country.
The kaleidoscope of Indian Mss is neither language specific nor script specific nor region specific. You can find manuscripts in well-known languages like Sanskrit and Persian and less known languages like Manipuri, Mizo and Tao. In fact, it only re-enforces my belief that any community that has got a script is bound to have Mss.
Humankind is a social being. The desire to communicate and share thoughts and experiences is natural and inbuilt in the human psyche.