[INDOLOGY] Jodhpur RORI

[Tyler Williams]

Dear Dr. Delire,

Just to add to Professor Nemec's comments, which I second, having worked
there this past year: it is still not necessary to be affiliated to an
Indian university.  All of the collection has been scanned, but only half
of the scans are available; the rest are caught up in legal proceedings --
for those, you will have to request to see the originals, which is fairly
straightforward.

Nowadays, if a scan is available, you are first allowed to view the scans
on computer terminals, and only if you need to see the original will the
staff take it out.  Scans are available at a very reasonable rate.

However-- a colleague went there a few weeks ago and reported that the
viewing room, including the computer terminals, were closed as they remodel
parts of the building.  I would check with Kamal Sankhla, the very helpful
manager of operations, over the phone before heading there, in order to
save time.  I'm not sure how long the remodeling was supposed to go in.

In any case, the museum is full of beautiful manuscripts.

Best,
Tyler Williams
Columbia University


On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 7:37 PM, John Nemec <jwn3y at cms.mail.virginia.edu>wrote:

> Dear Jean-Michel Delire,
>
> I worked at RORI in Jodhpur over a somewhat long visit--in 2006, if memory
> serves.  The library staff members I met there were genial and
> knowledgeable.  (It can be useful to know Hindi.)  The institute launched
> its website during my stay, and I thought they had intended to digitize
> some materials.  The building has a nice room with a long table surrounded
> by books, and other rooms.  They seemed well equipped, and it is overall a
> nice place to work.
>
> I had none of the official documents you have--letters from the embassy
> and home institution--, and a number of state holidays broke up my work
> there (they closed for Nanak Jayanti, and so on); but RORI overlooked my
> bureaucratic shortcomings and in the end made physical copies of the
> manuscripts I requested.  (Digital photography was prohibited.)  There was
> no mention of the need for a formal affiliation with an Indian University,
> as I remember it, but it is possible things have changed…
>
> You probably already know at least as well as I that the library itself
> holds an incredibly rich collection.  There are whole academic careers'
> worth of materials there, and if I am not mistaken it is one of the
> largest, if not the largest, collection of manuscripts in India.  (Many
> tantric texts are housed there, but also very many other items.)  I have
> long thought someone should spend a year or two there looking at the
> collection, thinking about how it perhaps reflects the Maharajas’
> influence, medieval bhakti and tantric traditions, and the like: that is,
> the collection itself is worthy of study, apart from the many individual
> treasures that it houses.
>
> Good luck there, and I hope many others use this excellent library (and
> have a look also at the other manuscript library in Jodhpur, in the
> Mehrangarh Fort itself, which is also a very interesting place).
>
> Sincerely,
> John
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 10:58:29 +0200
>  Jean-Michel Delire <jmdelire at ulb.ac.be> wrote:
> >Dear members,
> >
> >I am going to Jodhpur next week in order to consult manuscripts at the
> RORI. According to the rules, foreign scholars have to be affiliated to an
> Indian university in order to be authorized to see and copy manuscripts. I
> have with me an official letter from my university (Brussels) and a letter
> from my Embassy in Delhi, kindly requesting to allow me access to all
> documents, museums and observatories in order to make progress in my
> research about Jai Singh II astronomical achievements. Can anybody with
> some experience in Jodhpur's RORI give me some advise about this ?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Dr J.M.Delire,
> >Lecturer on "Science and Civilization in India - Sanskrit Texts",
> University of Brussels
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >INDOLOGY mailing list
> >INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
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>
> __________________________________
> John Nemec, Ph.D.
> Director of The South Asia Center and
> Associate Professor, Indian Religions and South Asian Studies
> Department of Religious Studies
> University of Virginia
> 323 Gibson Hall / 1540 Jefferson Park Avenue
> Charlottesville, VA 22904 (USA)
> nemec at virginia.edu
> +1-434-924-6716
> http://virginia.academia.edu/JNemec
>
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