An introduction to Sanskrit manuscriptology

1. Dr. JSRA Prasad
Dept. of Sanskrit Studies
University of Hyderabad

2. A Hand written book or document is called manuscript.
This means that never has been printed.
The term manuscript is derived from Latin manus 'hand'
and scribo 'I write', which means 'some thing written with
the hand.'
Each nook and corner of the world has manuscripts where
people put their thoughts and experiences in a written form.
A written document, dated back at least to seventy five
years, achieves the status of a rare manuscript.

3. The material used to write manuscripts was on paper,
palm­leaf, bark, cloth, metal etc.
These manuscripts contain precious information of texts
and treatises on various Indian arts and sciences.
Manuscripts are recovered in various languages and
scripts.
For instance, Sanskrit is written in Devanagari script,
Tamil, Grantha or in any other Indian language script.

4. manuscriptology means the science of collecting,
classifying, preserving and editing manuscripts.
Paleography means 'the science of deciphering ancient
writings' as evident in documents and inscriptions.

5. The different names of a manuscript are:
pandulipi, hastaprati, hastalekha, hastakriti, matrika,
grantha, potha, pothi, ponthi, pontha, pustaka, pusta,
pustika, pratilipi, shastra, kosha, nuskha, bid, chopadi,
kitab, bahi, gutaka, parvana, parvancha, murakka, ola,
puskola, talli, sarvanga, bahinuma pustika, patra,
panavali, text, codex, script, document, treatise, transcript,
evidence, primary source, etc.

6. The art of writing
History of deciphering the
ancient scripts
Evolution of the ancient
and modern scripts
Evolution of numerals
The substances for writing
Pens and other writing
materials
Different types of ink
Pigments and colors
for illustrations
The author
The scribe
Mss. and their types
Mss. and their shapes
Their illustrations and
decorative signs

7. Their margins,
beginnings and ends,
additions and
corrections
Their numbering,
extent and title pages
Colophons and post
colophon entries
Their covers and
writings thereon
Wrappers
Their collections or
libraries and their
management
Preservation of mss.
against worms, rats,
weather, fire, water
etc.
&
Textual critism

8.
The German scholars came to India to search for palm-leaf
manuscripts to take home with them.
English, French people had came to India with thirst for
knowledge and research.
Colin Mackenzie (1754-1821), the first surveyor general of
India and a great orientalist, has went on to a search for
valuable manuscripts. But for now, majority of his collections
are preserved in British Museum and British Library.
Still, few million unpublished manuscripts are found, which are
in the custody of individuals and voluntary organizations, at
national and international levels.
The total number may accounted at ten million.

9. Unfortunately, people who can read and decipher the
scripts are very few in the country.
Apparently, for this manuscript wealth, there is a danger of
being non extant. So, it is the need of the hour to take
necessary steps to restore them.
In the olden days, measures have been taken to prevent the
permanent damage of the manuscripts by
copying/inscribing the data on to a new writing material. It
is evident that ancestors copied these to be preserved for
posterity.

10.
In his The Discovery of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
says, “...the critical examination of these manuscripts
and, where considered desirable, their publication and
translation, are among the many things we have to do in
India when we succeed in breaking through our shackles
and can function for ourselves. Such a study is bound to
throw light on many phases of Indian history and
especially on the social background behind historic
events and changing ideas.”

11.
Our country is privileged to have nearly five million
manuscripts which is very rare to any other country.
We should take care of manuscripts because they are the
valuable sources of knowledge.
They are the main sources of our ancient history and
culture.
Our ancestors put their thoughts, expertize and
experiences in a written form through these manuscripts.

12. The constitution of India states, under Fundamental
Duties in Article 51A, "It shall be the duty of every
citizen to value and preserve the rich heritage of our
composite culture.”
Hence, there is an urgent need to collect, conserve,
preserve, collate and provide access to these precious
documents through the standards established by the
Ministry of Culture&Tourism, Govt. of India.

13. The first step to start research on manuscripts is to classify
and catalog them after a careful collection. Once this is
done, then the remaining part is the task of preservation.
Some scientific methods are in practice in the manuscript
resource/conservation centers to preserve manuscripts,
like clean them with a special chemical, fumigating them
etc.

14. Each state in India has established a Government Oriental
Manuscripts Library (G.O.M.L) to act as a manuscript
resource center apart from having some Oriental Research
Institutes (ORI).
Pennsylvania University in the US, has taken up the
digitization of these valuable documents to permanently
preserve the data and to make them available to
faculty/research scholars. American Oriental Society
provides the scholars with travel support and hospitality,
for the editing and publishing of Indian manuscript
collections in the US.

15. Thank you!!