Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Tanjore Vol 19

SR No.: 020244
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: P P S Shastri
Publisher: Government of Madras
Publication Year: 1934
Total Pages: 260
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Catalogue
File Size: 14 MB

Page 10

vi
It was at this juncture that His Excellency, the Viceroy Lord Irwin visited the library on the 11th December 1929. To a casual question of His Excellency whether English could be written on palm leaf, the Pandits of the library handed over to him at the end of the visit a palm leaf 400 years old in which were written"May Your Excellency Lord Irwin's visit be fruitful of further patronage to the library by sanctioning funds for the second triennium for completing the Catalogue." A similar appeal on palm leaf to Her Excellency Lady Irwin evoked great enthusiasm from her and both promised to see that necessary funds would be made available. The wheels of Government moved very quickly thenceafter; special reports were again called for and a sum of Rs 21960 was sanctioned in 1930 for a further triennium. With this and with a contribution of Rs. 1600 sanctioned by the Library Administrative Committee when the Government declined to grant any further aid, the Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Library has been completed in nineteen volumes. The descriptive details for the works mentioned in Volumes XVIII and XIX have had to be greatly curtailed because of the large number of works treated and the paucity of funds.
This Library is the greatest Oriental Manuscripts Library in the world, its Sanskrit collection being unique and unsurpassed by any other library. It is a fact of which South India may be legitimately proud that two of the Greatest Oriental Manuscripts Collections in the world are within our Presidency, the Tanjore Collection and that of the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras. The scheme of a Descriptive Catalogue of the Madras Library took shape in the last decades of the last century and is still in progress. In point of numbers, Tanjore compares very favourably with Madras. But the Tanjore collection has got a unique value in that it has preserved the literary works of authors spread over three-and-a-half centuries whose works are mostly in single copies. The collections in Tanjore should have begun as early as the middle of the fifteenth century about 1450 A. D.. The Telugu Nayaks who held sway over Tanjore during 1535-1675 patronised the pandits of the land and held courts to honour them. Valuable collections of important works were care