Are the materials Madhav cites the same as the Van Buitenen materials?
David Knipe's book, Vedic Voices: Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition, has an entry in the bibliography for Van Buitenen's 1956, 13-pg, unpublished typescript that accompanies the film. (Perhaps he has the typescript in his possession.)Also, the entry for Van Buitenen's papers, held at the UC library, suggests that there are at least field notes to the film in their collection (but perhaps not the actual typescript that accompanied the film).
A 1977 multi-authored document written by Knipe, Morgan, Dell, McDermott, and Smith, "Focus on Hindusim: A-V Resources for Teaching Religion," indicates that even in 1977, the film was no longer to be found.
This was brought up years ago in the Indology list. In 2010, Jarrod Whitaker sent out the following:
Fri Nov 12 08:43:07 EST 2010
Does anyone know how I can get hold of a copy of the film: Atha Vajapeyah Somayagah: The Vajapeya Sacrifice produced by J.A.B. van Buitenen, 1955. My inter-library loan people sent me this message: "We have exhausted all possible ILL sources.
There are no libraries that own this item that are ILL suppliers. Additionally, I have conducted online research and have been unable to locate the film as cited."
Herman Tull