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@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@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
>
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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@virginia.edu
+1-434-924-6716
http://virginia.academia.edu/JNemec

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