Classical heritages

[Dominik Wujastyk]

On Thu, 19 Mar 2009, FRITS STAAL wrote:

> The statement "If you walk into almost any brahman home, there's an almira
> somewhere that's packed with MSS." is grossly exaggerated. It applies to a
> few homes of brahman families in traditional areas.

Well, yes, I did exaggerate a bit, perhaps, but I would still maintain 
that largish collections of MSS are very, very widespread in private 
homes.  And they are often ignored by the families themselves. I have sat 
with brahman friends in their sitting rooms, and asked about MSS, and been 
told absolutely that they have none.  Meanwhile, over their shoulders, in 
the next room I could actually see a cupboard with palm-leaf MSS visible 
through the glass.  When I politely pointed this out, my hosts were 
surprised in my interest, and seemed not to count these objects as MSS. 
They were "old stuff" of indeterminate identity.  There was no 
disingenuousness here, or reluctance to display "family treasures".  The 
cupboard full of MSS really didn't "count" in some sense.  It was stuff 
from their grandparents that hadn't been thought about for years and 
years.  More or less junk.

I've even had this "manuscript denial" experience in a major library. 
The Roja Muthia library in Chennai, where I have participated in a major 
reconstruction project, and where the staff are my personal friends and 
colleagues, is mainly a book library.  In its early days, I asked about 
MSS.
- "There are none."
- "What about those bundles of inscribed palm leaves over there?"
- "Oh, what, those?"
- "Yes."
- "Oh, those are just family records of gifts given and recieved at family
   functions such as weddings, over many past generations."

!!!

This "MS denial" happens rather often, and needs to be taken into account 
when assessing whether or not there are MSS in a particular place.

Best,
Dominik