Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts Asiatic Society Vol 09

SR No.: 020276
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Prafullachandra Pal
Publisher: Asiatic Society
Publication Year: 1952
Total Pages: 128
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Catalogue
File Size: 7 MB

Page 8

INTRODUCTION
In the year 1942, I was requested by Dr. Kalidas Nag, M.A., D.LITT. (Paris), the then General Secretary of the Society, with the approval of the then President, Dr. Syamaprasad Mookerjee, to prepare a Descriptive Catalogue of Vernacular manuscripts in the Society's own collection and in the Indian Museum Collection. I was also asked to include in it the few vernacular manuscripts in the Government Collection which had been left out of the Catalogue (Vol. X) by Mahāmahopādhyāya Haraprasad Sastri.
After the abolition of the Fort William College the entire collection of manuscripts and printed books collected at great expense and trouble under the superintendence of Godwin, Carey and Gilchrist was handed over to the authorities of this Society in the year 1846. These manuscripts from the Fort William College formed the nucleus of the Society's collections of manuscripts. Most of the manuscripts catalogued in this volume are from the Fort William College Collection. These are not old but are copies made between the years 1823 and 1825 by the learned pandits appointed by the authorities of the Fort William College, for the Manuscript Library of the above institution. The condition of the manuscripts as handed down to the Society is good, the handwriting is distinct, paper is thick, and all the manuscripts are complete. They are in book-form and bound up, 3 or 4 manuscripts together. There are some unique texts, viz. : Candīra Gīta by Rāmānanda, Gaurimangala by Dvija Gaurānga in the above collection. It is curious to note here that there is a manuscript-Paśupāśamokṣaṇa by Radhā Mohan Sen. It is a Bengali treatise written in dialogue form and in prose, its purpose being to uphold. the supremacy of the Vedic religion over Christianity and non-Hindu systems. There is also a prose text of the translation of Srimad-BhāgavatGītā (Section X), the author being a European, Henry Sergeant by name. It appears from the manuscript that some of the passages of it had been corrected by William