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Indian Epigraphy c10.s7: 7. Preservation of Manuscripts

Indian Epigraphy c10.s7

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7. Preservation of Manuscripts

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Manuscripts were preserved in a library called *Bhāratī-bhāṇḍāgāra* or *Sarasvatī-bhāṇḍāra* (literally, ‘the store-house of the goddess of learning’). Books written on palmyra leaves or on bark or paper sheets had wooden covers on the top and bottom and the whole was tied up with a string. Often this string passed through the leaves or sheets and sometimes also the covers through holes made in them and was wound round the cover and knotted. These practices are referred to by Al-Bīrunī³ and Bāṇa.⁴ In Nepal, the covers of important manuscripts were often made of embossed metal and manuscripts were wrapped up in dyed or embroidered cloth.⁵ In Jain libraries, palmyra-leaf manuscripts were often kept in small sacks of cloth, the sacks being preserved in small boxes of white metal. We have noticed above that, in Kashmir, manuscripts were sometimes bound in leather and kept on shelves in accordance with Muhammadan practice.

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³ Sachau, *Alberuni’s India*, Part I, p. 171; cf. above, p. 62 and note 1.

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⁴ Nirnayasagar Press ed., p. 95, referring to *sūtra-veṣṭana* of a manuscript. See above, p. 62, note 1, for *sūtra* or *śarayantraka*.

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⁵ Bühler, *Indian Palaeography*, p. 99.

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In the libraries attached to colleges, royal courts and monasteries, the manuscripts were generally preserved in boxes of wood or cardboard under the charge of a librarian. The collections of such libraries were often catalogued. Individual scholars are also known to have sometimes possessed good collections of manuscripts.

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Among royal libraries, mention may be made of the celebrated collection of the Paramāra king Bhoja (c. 1000-55 A.D.). In the first half of the 12th century, the Caulukya king Siddhārāja Jayasiṃha (c. 1094-1144 A.D.) conquered Malwa and carried away the books of Bhoja’s library to Anhilwada where they were apparently amalgamated with the Caulukya collection of manuscripts. The Caulukya royal library at Anhilwada is often mentioned in the 13th century works. The Caulukya-Vāghelā king Visaladeva (Viśvamalla, c. 1244-62 A.D.) is stated to have supplied a copy of Śrīharṣa’s Naiṣadhīya to Vidyādhara for writing his commentary on it and also a copy of Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra to Yaśodhara who composed the Jayamaṅgalā commentary on it. A copy of the Rāmāyaṇa in Visaladeva’s collection is known to be preserved now in the library of the University of Bonn, West Germany.¹

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¹ See Bühler, Indian Palaeography, p. 99.

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As regards libraries of individual scholars, it is interesting to note that, in the early years of the 7th century, Bāṇa in his Harṣacarita mentions his pustaka-vācaka or ‘the reader of books’ and describes the latter’s manipulation of a manuscript of the Vāyu Purāṇa.² There were numerous collections of manuscripts pertaining to individual scholars or families of scholars in all parts of the country. One of the biggest such libraries of the medieval age was the collection of manuscripts made by Kavīndrācārya Sarasvatī (16th-17th century) at Banaras. A manuscript of Vāmana's *Kāvyālaṅkāra* in Kavīndrācārya's collection bears the seal of Prince Salīm (the earlier name of the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr, 1605-27 A. D.). Some of the works mentioned in the old catalogue of manuscripts in Kavīndrācārya's library are not available now.¹

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² Nirnayasagar Press ed., p. 95.

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¹ M. Krishnamachariar, *History of Classical Sanskrit Literature*, pp. 390 b-c.

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According to the Purāṇas, it was a sacred duty of rich men to make donations of books to temples and other institutions.² Such donations were obligatory on the followers of the Buddhist and Jain creeds.³ There is evidence to show that both local scribes as well as copyists hailing from the neighbouring territories were employed for the purpose of copying manuscripts.⁴

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² See Hemādri's *Dānakhaṇḍa*, pp. 544 ff.

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³ Cf. Bühler, op. cit., p. 99.

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⁴ Cf. *IHQ*, Vol, XXX, p. 387; see also above, p. 88.

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