[INDOLOGY] MSS in Sarasvati Bhavan Library

[Madhav Deshpande]

My experience with the Sarasvati Bhavan Library is similar to that of
Michael.  In mid-80s, I had located a manuscript at the SBL, and paid for
making a microfilm/copy, but there was no response.  Finally, if I remember
correctly, my Guruji, Professor Cardona, happened to be in Banaras, and it
was his personal intervention that got me the ms copies that I needed.

Madhav Deshpande


On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 8:41 AM, Michael Witzel <witzel at fas.harvard.edu>wrote:

> No tips but a story or two.
>
> I have visited the Sarasvati Bhavan Library 3 times (from Kathmandu)  in
> 1973 and 1974, and have ordered the microfilm of a Vedic text (Kapisthala),
> paid the fee, gave them a roll of unexposed microfilm and even the
> developer.  I am still waiting for the film ordered in March 1974 --  for
> 40 years now.
>
> Two or three years ago their Vice-Chancellor wrote to me asking whether he
> could publish a text that we had slated for publication in the Harvard
> Oriental Series.  I answered, well yes -- but first please deliver my
> microfilm.  No answer.
>
> To quote the then (1974) vice-director of the National Archives in New
> Delhi:
> "You European scholars always are in a hurry. We are not in hurry--- we
> have many lives."  --
> To which I answered: "I have only one, so please give me (the film)."
> Then she gave...
>
> Apparently one life is not be long enough to get anything out of
> the Sarasvati Bhavan Library.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Michael
>
>
> PS, fed up with this situation, I wrote to the Göttingen Library, who have
> a copy of the Benares Kapisthala Samhita made for Kielhorn, and asked them
> for a film/scan. They said they were very busy and it may take some time.
>  Three weeks later the copy was in my mail.
> One life, indeed.
>
>
> On Feb 3, 2014, at 3:46 AM, Martin Gansten wrote:
>
> I recently found out that a number of MSS of texts for which I have been
> searching for several years are present in Sarasvati Bhavan Library,
> Varanasi. Moreover, I was told that they have all been digitized; but I
> have been given rather conflicting accounts of their availability.
>
> According to one informant, the digitized texts can be accessed and copied
> at a cost (but only piecemeal, no more than 25% of a text at a time) from
> within the IGNCA in Delhi. A catalogue of Sarasvati Bhavan Library MSS is
> found on the IGNCA website:
> http://ignca.nic.in/
>
> According to another informant, however, although the manuscripts have
> been digitized, there is no facility for getting digital copies; and the
> written permission of the Vice Chancellor of Sampoornanand Sanskrit
> University in Varanasi is needed for either reading or gettting a photocopy
> of any manuscript. Even with such a permission, I was told, I am unlikely
> to be allowed to view more than a few MSS.
>
> In view of these conflicting and not very encouraging reports, I wonder if
> any colleagues on the list have practical experience of accessing Sarasvati
> Bhavan Library MSS, and have any advice to offer. All tips and other forms
> of assistance would be most gratefully received!
>
> Martin Gansten
>
>
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>
> ============
> Michael Witzel
> witzel at fas.harvard.edu
> <www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm<http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ewitzel/mwpage.htm>
> >
> Wales Prof. of Sanskrit &
> Director of Graduate Studies,
> Dept. of South Asian Studies, Harvard University
> 1 Bow Street,
> Cambridge MA 02138, USA
>
> phone: 1- 617 - 495 3295, fax 617 - 496 8571;
> my direct line:  617- 496 2990
>
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-- 
Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
202 South Thayer Street, Suite 6111
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608, USA


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