A Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Indian Museum Collection of the Asiatic Society (Veda Manuscripts) (Vol-I)

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The present title of The Asiatic Society's publication is one more valuable addition in the Bibliotheca Indica Series. An eminent Indologist Professor Anantalal Thakur mentioned way back in 1994 in a paper published in the Journal of The Asiatic Society (Vol. XXXVI, No. 3, p. 180) "the Indian Museum Collection, received as permanent loan from the Society, deserves special attention of the authorities so that the scholars can utilise it as soon as possible". It is, therefore, extremely satisfying that the Society could take some initiative in that direction. The volume I of the said Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Indian Museum Collection of The Asiatic Society deals with the Veda Manuscripts. On this point also one may refer back to another paper, published in the same volume of the Journal mentioned above, by Professor Samiran Chandra Chakrabarti, where he observes, "If one goes through the Catalogue of Publications of The Asiatic Society, one is bound to be impressed. Most of the important Vedic texts were once published from here". It is thus obvious that the rich heritage of scholarship in this special field had grown in this premiere institution of learning since it's inception. It is but a natural continuity of that academic tradition that the Society has been able to carry forward. The compiler Dr. Sarbani Bose and the editors late Professor Satya Ranjan Banerjee and Professor Amit Bhattacharjee are appreciated for their valuable works.

I am glad, on behalf of The Asiatic Society, to introduce the first volume of the Descriptive Catalogue of Indian Museum collections on Veda. All of us know that we have had four kind of collections namely (i) Indian Museum Collections, (ii) Government Collections, (iii) Asiatic Society Collections, and (iv) New Asiatic Society Collections. Two Hundred and Eighty-Nine (289) MSS from Indian Museum collections are included here in Devnāgarī scripts. It is very difficult task in cataloguing such works. Hurdles are faced almost every day in editing such manuscripts for variant reading of the texts, incorrect accession number in some cases (although rectified later) and brittle condition of some MSS.