[INDOLOGY] Devanagari manuscripts in the NGMCP catalogue

[Elliot Stern]

Dear Harry,

I can only partially answer your questions.

You should notice the NAK (National Archives Kathmandu) manuscript numbers at the bottom of nine catalogue entries for devanāgarī gurugītā manuscripts (6-10, 12-14, 16). 

The answer to your question 3) is clear. The NGMPP did not photograph manuscripts outside of Nepal. See this description: https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/en/forschung/ngmcp/history/about-ngmpp.html .

It is not possible to answer your questions 1) and 2) without looking at the manuscripts. Some devanāgarī manuscripts were brought to Nepal by North India residents who migrated to the Kathmandu Valley for political/religious reasons. Others may have been created in the Bhojpuri speaking areas of the Nepalese Terai, where devanāgarī was in general use. Some devanāgarī manuscripts may have been written in Awadhi speaking areas of the Nepalese Terai.

Some of the NAK devanāgarī gurugītā manuscripts may be copies of other ones held by NAK. Three of the four nyāyakaṇikā manuscripts at the NAK (the fourth, 4-1691, is an old manuscript  probably written in Varanasi in the late 15th or early 16th century CE), exemplify this possibility. I identified one of these three, 4-1098, with a colophon date in 1903 CE, as the source for the other two, 3-357 and 5-5524. I can only speculate why 4-1098 was copied twice (presumably at the NAK, then known as the Bir Library). Also worth noting: the beginning of 4-1098 is a copy from the printed edition in the Pandit, which was being published contemporaneously; the end was copied from 4-1691).

Best wishes in the new year,

Elliot

> On Jan 1, 2025, at 1:16 PM, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> Dear list members,
> Some of the manuscripts in the NGMCP catalogue are in devanagari script.  For example there are 17 manuscripts of the stotra, the gurugItA , 14 of which are in devanagari, the rest in Newari.  What is the implication of these manuscripts being in devanagari.
> 1) Would they have been brought to Nepal from India?
> or
> 2) Were manuscripts created in Nepal in devanagari? I.e. an area where the local script is devanagari.
> or
> 3) Did the NGMPP photograph manuscripts outside of Nepal?
> 
> Thanks,
> Harry Spier
> 
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Elliot M. Stern
552 South 48th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19143-2029
emstern1948 at gmail.com
267-240-8418



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