An Alphabetical List Of Manuscripts In The Oriental Institute Vadodara (Set of 5 Volumes)

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The first volume of An Alphabetical List of Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute was first published in 1942 as the Gaekwad's Oriental Series No. 97. It was out of print since long and was in great demand from the scholarly world. The reprinting of it was a necessity. It, therefore, gives me pleasure to put before the world of scholars this reprint by photo-offset of the first volume of An Alphabetical list of Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute. It covers 7348 Manuscripts of the collection of the Oriental Institute. The first volume was followed by the second volume, covering another 9077 works. Even this was out of print for long, was in great demand, and will be available in the same way very soon. The third volume covering another 5000 works is recently published. The work of the fourth volume is also in progress and will cover the remaining manuscripts of the collection of the Oriental Institute.

I hope this volume will also be well-received by scholars and students as its previous edition.

I am thankful to Shri P.N. Shrivastav, the Manager, The M. S. University (Sadhana) Press and his colleagues for their co-operation in reprinting this book.

The first installment of An Alphabetical List of Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute, Baroda is now presented to all lovers of Ancient Indian Culture as No. XCVII of the Gaekwad's Oriental Series, The volume covers 7,352 entries of manuscripts and is divided into 13 sections. It is prepared from the card index as it exists in the library of the Oriental Institute, with occasional corrections and modifications consequent on a closer examination of a few of the original manuscripts.

It will not be out of place here to recall the history of the manus cripts library at the Oriental Institute, which, like all other cultural institutions in Baroda, owes its origin to the foresight and the innate love for oriental culture of the illustrious ruler the late Maharaja Sayaji Rao III Gaekwad. The manuscripts library came into being in an humble and unostentatious manner as a small but important section of the Central Library in the second decade of the p section grew under the fostering care of the late Maharaja Saheb and present century. The his wise advisors until in 1915 the publication of rare and unique manuscripts in a special series, to be called the Gaekwad's Oriental Series, was added to the activities of the Sanskrit section which, till then, functioned as a mere repository of handwritten manuscripts and printed Sanskrit books. It was in 1916 that the Gaekwad's Oriental Series made its first publication with a charming and valuable work, the Kävyamimämsä of Rajasekhara who belonged to the latter part of the 9th century A. D. The book proved so popular that it went through three editions by the year 1934.

As a consequence of its growing importance the Sanskrit section was separated from the Central Library and made into an independent Oriental Institute in the year 1927, in order to extend to the institution opportunities for an autonomous development. Moreover, the rapidly growing activities of the section made the necessity of a separate administrative machinery quite obvious. The importance of the newly founded Oriental Institute was further augmented when by a special order of Government the publication of Marathi, Gujarati and Hindi books of the State was also entrusted to it in 1931.

When these lines are being written, the Gaekwad's Oriental Series has to its credit no less than 97 original works, covering many thousands of pages of original matter, throwing extensive light on various obscure branches of oriental learning and culture. The Series has thus served uninterruptedly since 1916 the cause of oriental scholar ship under the active patronage of the late Maharaja Sayaji Rao III Gaekwad, and his worthy grandson and illustrious successor, the present ruler of Baroda, His Highness the Maharaja Sir Pratap Sinha Gaekwad who, within the last few years, has become, like the Wishing Tree, a resort of learned men and institutions for all varieties of encouragement and patronage.

Amongst the benefactors of the oriental studies in Baroda, it is our duty to mention the name of the present Prime Minister of the State, Sir V. T. Krishnamachariar, Kt., K. C. I. E., whose love and active sympathy for all cultural activities of the Baroda State in general, and oriental learning in particular, is almost unparalleled in modern times To Sir Manubhai N. Mehta' the ex-Prime Minister, in whose time the Series was inaugurated, we are grateful for all the encouragement given by him to our endeavours in the past.

The manuscript collection, here catalogued, started sometime in 1912, and it now numbers 13957 manuscript bundles. This includes one fairly large collection of 1610 manuscripts from the Baroda Vitthala Mandir and another of 446 manuscripts acquired from the late Pandit Yajnesvara Shastri of Baroda. The bulk of the collection, consisting of nearly ten thousand manuscript bundles, however, is the result of the work of the energetic and indefatigable Pandit R. A. Shastry who toured all over India acquiring manuscripts under orders of Government for well nigh seven years.