Ancient editions

[Maheswaran Nair]

Hallo,
It is true, second hand book sellig shops are practically nil  
here.Previously, second hand book selling street vendors occuppied the  
Putharikkandam ground and they were sacked.They then shifted to the  
front of my university from where also they were evacuated.
Regards
K.Maheswaran Nair
Professor
Department of Sanskrit
University of Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala, India


Quoting Allen W Thrasher <athr at LOC.GOV>:

> 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