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Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c11.s2: § 38. — The preservation of manuscripts and copper-plates, and the treatment of letters

Indian Palaeography from about B.C. 350 to about A.D. 1300 c11.s2

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§ 38. — The preservation of manuscripts and copper-plates, and the treatment of letters

A. — Manuscripts and libraries

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[93] Wooden covers, cut according to the size of the sheets, were placed on the Bhūrja and palm-leaves, which had been drawn on strings, and this is still the custom even with the paper MSS.¹¹ In Southern India the covers are mostly pierced by holes, through which the long strings are passed. The latter are wound round the covers and knotted. This procedure was usual already in early times¹² and was observed in the case of the old palm-leaf MSS.

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¹¹ Berūnī, India, 1, 171 (SACHAU).

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¹² Compare Harṣacarita, 95, where the *sūtraveṣṭanam* of a MS. is mentioned.

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from Western and Northern India. But in Nepāl the covers of particularly valuable MSS. sometimes are made of embossed metal; the MSS. (*pustaka*) which have been prepared in this manner are usually wrapped up in dyed or even embroidered cloth. Only in the Jaina libraries the palm-leaf MSS. sometimes are kept in small sacks of white cotton cloth, which again are fitted into small boxes of white metal. The collections of MSS., which frequently are catalogued, and occasionally, in monasteries and in royal courts, are placed under librarians, generally are preserved in boxes of wood or cardboard. Only in Kashmīr, where in accordance with Muhammadan usage the MSS. are bound in leather, they are put on shelves, like our books.

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The ancient Indian name of a library, *bhāratībhāṇḍāgāra*, "treasury of the goddess of speech," occurs frequently in Jaina works; more rarely the modern synonym, *sarasvatībhāṇḍāgāra*. Such Bhāṇḍāgāras were, and still are, found in temples,¹ colleges (*vidyāmaṭha*), monasteries (*maṭha*, *upāśraya*, *vihāra*, *saṅghārāma*),² at the courts of princes and in the houses of many private individuals. The Purāṇas declare it to be the sacred duty of the wealthy to make donations of books to temples and so forth.³ Equally, such donations are obligatory on the Jaina and Bauddha laymen, and the Praśastis of the old MSS. prove that the obligation was fulfilled in the most liberal manner. A famous royal library of the middle ages was that of king Bhoja of Dhārā (11th century); on the conquest of Mālva, about A. D. 1140, Siddharāja-Jayasiṁha transferred it to Aṇhilvād;⁴ there it seems to have been amalgamated with the court library of the Caulukyas, which is repeatedly mentioned in works of the 13th century. The *bhāratībhāṇḍāgāra* of the Caulukya Vīsaladeva or Viśvamalla (A. D. 1242—1262) furnished, according to an unpublished Praśasti, the copy of the Naishadhīya, on which Vidyādhara wrote the first commentary of the poem, and the MS. of the Kāmasūtra, according to which Yaśodhara composed his Jayamaṅgalāṭīkā.⁵ One of the manuscripts of the Rāmāyaṇa in the library of the University of Bonn has been derived from a copy of Vīsaladeva's collection.⁶

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¹ Compare the remarks on donations of MSS. in inscriptions; *e. g.*, Inscriptions du Cambodge, 30, 31; *HULTZSCH*, SII. 1, 154.

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² Compare the remark in a Valabhī inscription of A. D. 538 (IA. 7, 67) regarding a donation in order to enable the monks of the Bauddha monastery of Duḍḍā to buy MSS. (*pustakopakrayaṇ*) of the *saddharma*.

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³ Hemādri, Dānakhaṇḍa, 544 ff.

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⁴ Compare D. Leben des J.-M Hemacandra, D. WA. 183, 231.

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⁵ Kāmasūtra, 334, note 4 (ed. *DURGĀPRASĀD*).

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⁶ *WIRTZ*, die westl. Rec. des Rāmāyaṇa, 17 f.

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The search for Sanskrit MSS., instituted by the Government of India, has shown that there are still a good many royal libraries in India, and the catalogues of several, such as those of Alwar, Bikāner, Jammu, Mysore, and Tanjore, has been published. The documents, published in connection with the search, have brought to light also a surprisingly large number of private libraries. And various notes in older Sanskrit works make it apparent that considerable private libraries existed in early times. Thus, Bāṇa (about A. D. 620) tells us that he kept a particular reader (*pustaka-vācaka*), whose manipulation of the MS. of the Vāyupurāṇa he describes in his Harṣacarita.⁷ *BURNELL*'s remarks,⁸ regarding the bad treatment of the MSS. by the Brahmans, do not hold good for the whole of India, perhaps not even for the whole of Southern India. In Gujarāt, Rājputāna and the Marāṭhā country, as well as in Northern and Central India, I have seen, besides some ill-kept collections, very carefully preserved libraries in the possession of Brahmans and Jaina monks. The treatment of the books usually depends only upon the worldly circumstances of the owner.⁹

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⁷ Nirṇayasāgar edition, 95.

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⁸ B.ESIP., 86.

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⁹ Compare *RĀJENDRALĀL MITRA*, in Gough's Papers, 21.

B. — Copper-plates

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The way in which private individuals kept their copper-plate grants, seems to have been very peculiar. In many places, *e. g.*, in the ruins of Valabhī, near the modern Valā, they have been found immured in the walls or even in the foundations of the houses of the owners. In many other cases [94] the grants have turned up in those fields to the donation of which they refer, often hidden in small caches constructed of bricks.

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The finders or poor owners often sell or pledge plates to the Vāṇiās, and this custom explains why they frequently come into the hands of European collectors at great distances from the places of issue. The originals of the grants, according to which the plates were prepared, probably remained in the royal Daftar, the keeper of which, the *akṣapaṭalika*, is frequently mentioned.¹

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¹ Compare STEIN's translation of the Rājataraṅgiṇī, V, 249, 397, and notes.

C. — The treatment of letters

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The Jātakas already mention the custom of wrapping up important letters in white cloth and sealing the packet.² At present, official or ceremonial letters often are sent in bags of silk or brocade. In the case of ordinary letters on palm-leaves, the proceeding is simpler; the leaves are folded, their ends are split and joined, and the whole is tied up with a thread.³ It is probable that letters on Bhūrja were treated similarly. According to Bāṇa,⁴ the postal runner (*dīrghādhvaga*, *lekhahāraka*) tied each separately to a strip of cloth and wound this round his head.

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² B.IS. III[^2]. 8; FAUSBÖLL, Jātaka, 2, 173 f.

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³ B. *E°IP*, 89.

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⁴ Harṣacarita, 58, 137.

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