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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
PREFACE.
This, the 20th volume of the Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts in the Saraswati Mahāl Library, gives a complete list with description of all the Mantra Manuscripts in the Library. This collection contains 547 Palm leaf manuscripts and 773 Paper manuscripts.
The Palm leaf manuscripts are very old and many of them are in a damaged condition. Their identification and description, therefore, remained unfinished. But they contain valuable materials. Pandits who are deeply versed in Mantra Sastra and have the knowledge of traditional practice are very rare, and it is a piece of good fortune that our Library found in its staff a fully qualified pandit, Sri K. S. Subramania Sastri and entrusted him with the work.
· The Paper manuscripts contain not only the collection locally made by the Rājas of Tanjore but also the All-India collection made by Rajah Serfoji II (1798–1832) the scholar-king who has made substantial additions to this library and whose name has rightly been given to it. Even among the Paper manuscripts, there are some that have lost some of their front and back leaves and require an intimate acquaintance with the subject for their identification.
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