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Magazine
Treasure trove of traditions
SUDHA GOPALAKRISHNAN
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A look at some rare manuscripts and the efforts being taken to preserve them. The second of a two-part article.
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Major text: A page from Subika.
Subika, dealing with astrology and cosmology, is an important text of the Manipuri intellectual tradition housed at the Manipur State Archives in Imphal. Believed to be composed by the Manipuri King Khagemba, the Subika was consulted by the royal family of Manipur before undertaking any major venture and the text passed over from the royalty to the royal pandits. The power of this text prevails to the present day as people in Manipur regard its predictions as completely reliable. Yet another rare major Manipuri manuscript is Yumbanlol in Meitei script, a text in copper on the relationship between husband and wife. The Krishna Kanta Handiqui Library in Guwahati University has over 4,500 manuscripts including those of Ramayana, Bhagavata, and Lav-Kush Yuddha among others. These represent regional styles of illustrations and scripts prevalent in Assam. For example, the Assamese Chitra Bhagavata of the 18th century in Kaitheli script is illustrated in the Mughal style of art. Another outstanding manuscript is Ratnamalavyakarana, a work on Sanskrit grammar composed in 16th century by Purushottama Bhattacharya and still recited in some of the pathashalas in Assam and West Bengal.
From the Mughal period
The Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library was established by Maulvi Khuda Baksh Khan in 1891 and it acquired the status of an “Institution of National Importance” in 1969 through an Act of Parliament. Jehangir-Nama, Shah-Nama, Al-Quran, Tarikh-i-Khandan-i-Timuriya, Kitab-al-Hashaish and Al-Lumafi al-Tasawwuf are among the rare manuscripts in this collection. The manuscript of Diwan-i-Hafiz from the personal collection of Mughal emperors Humayun and Jehangir is also in the Khuda Baksh library. Kitab-Al-Hashaish is a revised Arabic version by Hunayn bin Ishaq of the Greek original dictionary of medicine listing the properties of medicinal plants. The manuscript of Kitab-Al-Tasrif describes in detail many methods and instruments of surgery with exquisite illustrations and is written in Arabic language with Mahgribi characters.
The Rampur Raza Library, housed in the Rampur Fort, was established by Nawab Faizu’llah Khan and has a15,000-strong collection in Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and Turkish. It also houses Mughal miniature paintings from the 16th to the 18th century. The Al-Quran Al-Masjid is one of the oldest copies of the Holy Quran in this library. Said to be written by Hazrat Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, this manuscript is in Arabic, in early Kufi script and is also one of the oldest parchment manuscripts in the world. Other prized manuscripts are Kalila-Wa-Dimna, Persian translation of the fourth century text of Panchatantra, and Valmiki’s Ramayana in Persian in Nastaliq script, written in 1715, containing many illustrations in the style of the Rajasthan School of painting.
Rare biography
An exquisite Persian manuscript of Baburnama is among the many collections of the National Museum, New Delhi. Considered to be one of the earliest biographies of its kind, the manuscript, written in silk handmade paper, provides remarkable insights into the Emperor’s world, and bears the writing of Emperor Shah Jahan. It is replete with rich illustrations, displaying the workmanship of the artists in Akbar’s imperial atelier. Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, an autobiography of Jahangir, is written in Shikasta script bearing a shamsa in pure gold with the Emperor’s name inscribed in the centre.
The Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute (RORI), an initiative of the Government of Rajasthan, has a rich collection of manuscripts depicting miniatures featuring Pala, Western Indian, Rajput, Kangra and Jammu and Kashmir schools of painting on palm leaf, birch bark and handmade paper. Among them, the Arsharamayana, copied and painted during the reign of Rajput kings of Mewar in the mid-17th century, is written in Sanskrit, in Devanagari script, with 36 illustrations belonging to the Mewar School of Art. A rare manuscript of Dhvanyaloka Lochana, a text on aesthetic theory by Anandavardhana, the great Kashmiri thinker, is also part of the RORI’s collection.
Shantinatha Charita, describing the life of Shantinatha, the 16th Tirthankara and Uttaradhyanasutra containing the last sermon of Mahavira, belong to the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad. A compendium of the Jain faith and philosophy, they are exquisitely illustrated. Similarly, the Aryabhadra-Kalapika-Nama-Mahayana composed over 300 years back and housed in the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamshala, describes the life stories of One Thousand and One Buddhas and has 1,001 images. This rare manuscript of 456 folios was brought from Tibet after the Chinese occupation in 1959. Ashvaphalaprakasha, a manuscript on veterinary science with reference to the diseases and cure of horses in the collection of the Vishveshvaranand Visvabandhu Institute of Indological Studies, Hoshiarpur, is an example of India’s contribution to specialised branches of medicinal knowledge. Apart from discussing the different ways of treatment of horses, the text is also significant for the skilful illustration of different types of horses.
Among the important manuscript repositories from the southern region are the Institut Francais de Pondichery in Puducherry, Oriental Research Institute in Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Oriental Research Institute and Library in Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram and the Oriental Research Institute in Mysore. The Shaivagama codex in Puduchery contains valuable texts of the Shaivasiddhanta system of ritual and philosophy composed in Sanskrit and written in Tigalari script. Among the Tirupati collections is the Saubhagyaratnakara, a text dealing with mantrasastra, which contains the explanation of different mantras and their correct pronunciation, which are believed to help a person in meditation. The Arya-manjushri-mula-kalpa from the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, Thiruvananthapuram is perhaps the only surviving manuscript of the text, dealing mainly with Shakyamuni’s address to Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. In its content, the text is entirely in the spirit of Mahayana Buddhism, and was translated into Chinese between 980 to 1000 A.D. and into Tibetan in the 11th century A.D.
On tantric worship
The Oriental Research Institute, Mysore, established in 1891 by Chamaraja Wodeyar, has several important manuscripts among its collection, including a complete text of the Natya Sastra, written in Sanskrit and in Kannada script. Another valuable manuscript is the Saradatilaka, which explains the theory and practice of Tantric worship and which contains the gist of major Tantra classics in verse form. The Institute is also well known for its manuscript of Arthasastra, a treatise on Economics, through which the text came to be known to the outside world.
Forty-five such manuscripts considered as “treasures” were identified by India’s National Mission for Manuscripts in February this year as “Vijnananidhi” based on an evaluation by scholars, and their custodians were honoured for preserving them. The Mission has also taken these up for conservation and digitisation. These are only some “gems” among the one million manuscripts placed in the public domain on www.namami.org by the Mission through its work in the last four years. These today challenge global scholarship for more detailed interrogation and study. Studies of even a selected number of these manuscripts are expected to contribute significantly to enlarging world scholarship. It is now the responsibility of every global citizen to participate in that stimulating intellectual journey.
(The first part of the article appeared on January 6, 2008.)
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