Ancient editions

[Allen W Thrasher]

Back around 1990 when the Library of Congress was trying to spend the last of its PL480/US India Fund dollars, I spent a week or so in Kerala and discovered there were essentially no secondhand or antiquarian booksellers.  (The absence of such in a highly literate society was an interesting sociological phenomenon.  Do books decay especially quickly in Kerala's climate?  Do people hang onto them with particular persistence?)  I was able to get some  works of modern Malayalam literature with LC had missed, without knowing Malayalam, by searching on the English added titles,  from a small commercial lending library that was going out of business and from a couple of pavement secondhand book peddlers.  If there is a secondhand trade it has developed since then.   I would be interested to hear what others say.

Motilal Barnarsidass in Delhi has a thriving secondhand business in addition to their publishing and distribution business.  The various versions of Chowkhamba (which split about 20 years ago as part of the division of the joint family) are likely to have secondhand as well as current publications; at least they used to.  Bagchee certainly deals in antiquarian books.  There are also numerous booksellers around Connaught Place and at Daryaganj.  I am not up to date on which have a secondhand business in  Indological materials.

You can look at the lists of booksellers off SARAI < http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/southasia/cuvl/ >

at: 
< http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/southasia/cuvl/pubs.html >.

I think some of these are not kept up to date.  

Are you planning to go through Mumbai or Chennai?  There are some o.p. dealers there.

Allen Thrasher



Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D., Senior Reference Librarian
South Asia Team, Asian Division
Library of Congress, Jefferson Building 150
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, DC 20540-4810
tel. 202-707-3732; fax 202-707-1724; athr at loc.gov
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.

>>> Jean-Michel Delire <jmdelire at ULB.AC.BE> 07/24/07 9:22 AM >>>

Dear Colleagues,

I am in Delhi for the moment, and planning to visit Kerala in order to collect copies of mathematical manuscripts, I am looking for ancient, out of print, editions of mathematical and astronomical sanskrit treatises.
Could anyone tell me precisely where I could find such books or second hand books shops, in Delhi or in Kerala ?

Many thanks,

Dr J.M.Delire,
Secretary of the Center for History of Science,
University of Brussels,
Belgium