A descriptive catalogue of Sanskrit mss. in the library of the Asiatic society of Bengal : Part first.--Grammar. Part first, Grammar / edited by Rájendrálála Mitra.

  • Asiatic Society (Kolkata, India). Library.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A descriptive catalogue of Sanskrit mss. in the library of the Asiatic society of Bengal : Part first.--Grammar. Part first, Grammar / edited by Rájendrálála Mitra. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE. / The total number of Sanskrit works extant has been estimated at ten thousand. As yet, however, scarce two- thirds of that number have come to the notice of European orientalists; and MSS. of only about one-third of it are accessible in Europe. Unquestionably the largest collection of Sanskrit MSS. in Europe is the India House collection, and it comprises a total of 4,093 separate codices, of which several are duplicates, or fragments of complete works which have been separately numbered. The Bodleian collection, catalogued by Professor Aufrecht, includes eight hundred and fifty-four codices, made up principally of the collections taken to England by the late Professor H. H. Wilson, the late Dr. J. Id. Mill, and Mr. Walker. The Berlin collection, as noticed by Dr. Weber in his Catalogue comprises about the same number of codices. The Leyden collection is, I believe, nearly as rich, but I have not yet seen any inventory of it. Other European collections are comparatively poor. In India, there are several large collections in the palaces of the Hindu Rajas; but they have not yet been examined by European scholars, nor are they easily acces¬ sible. The most extensive collection is perhaps the Sarasvati Bhandaram of His Highness the Maharaja of Tanjore. It is said to comprise upwards of fourteen thousand MSS., the whole of which has been examined and catalogued by the ♦