Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c11.3

c11.3

For manuscripts were preserved, with some exceptions, in India before the nineteenth century in family libraries. It is true that Anūpasimha,¹ the Mahārāja of Bikaner in Rājasthān from 1674 till 1698, formed a vast collection rich in *jyotiḥśāstra* manuscripts (many from the Deccan, where he campaigned with Aurangzib) that still survives intact in the Anup Sanskrit Library; that the core of the Sarasvati Mahal Library in Tanjore goes back to Tulajarāja,² the Mahārāja of Tanjore from 1728 till 1736, and his predecessors; that, at the same time, Savāi Jayasimha collected some of the manuscripts now in the Jayapura Museum; and that the incredible treasures of a number of the ancient Jaina Bhāṇḍāras of Gujarāt and Rājasthān have been accumulating since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Still, most of our manuscripts were in small private collections till recently—or still are. And these small collections tend to preserve a few of the accepted astronomical works of the region (if the family produces *pañcāṅgas*) and the standard works on *jātaka*, *tājika*, *muhūrta*, *praśna*, and *saṃhitā* (if they are astrologers); beyond this they might contain locally popular works, or even manuscripts—sometimes unique—of treatises composed by members of their own families. Since education in the *śāstra* was through a *guru* normally rather than through a *pāṭhaśālā* or *maṭha*, the enrichment of these family libraries was probably most common when a son was sent to study with an external *guru*; one of the most notable examples of this that we have is Divākara of Golagrāma, whose family we shall soon discuss. In large cultural centers like Kāśī, of course, intercourse was easier. And Jaina monks in their ordained peregrinations spread both learning and manuscripts. It was a recognized pious act for a Jaina layman to bear the expense of the copying of manuscripts for these monks; and many of them, as we know from their colophons, occupied the rainy seasons with scribal work.