Praudha Manorama with Commentary Sabdaratna (An Old and Rare Book)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Foreword The original Government Collection of Sanskrit Manu- scripts deposited in the Deccan College during the 19th century was deposited in the Bhandarkar Oriental Reserch Institute when that Institute was founded in 1917. When the Deccan College was revived in 1939 as a foundation for research and post-graduate study in linguistics, Archeology and Sociology-Anthropology, a new collection was started primarily through gifts received from different parties and to a certain extent by a search initiated by members of the staff, particularly Dr. R. G. Harshe, the first Registrar of the Institute. This collection now contains over 10,000 manuscripts covering different aspects of Sanskrit literature. A hand list was prepared several years ago and steps had been taken to prepare descriptive catalogues when under a project approved by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs, of India, catalogues of Indian manuscripts were to be prepared according to a set form approved by a special Committee appointed by the Ministry and the Deccan College was among several institutions invited to seek the advantage of having their catalogues published under this scheme. The work of preparing the descriptive catalogues of these manuscripts has been undertaken by different members of the staff of the Deccan College and the present volume is published with the help of the grant-in-aid for publication of catalogues of manuscripts given by the then Ministry of Scientific Research and Cultural Affairs, Government of India, New Dehli. It is expected that similar volumes will follow each other at short intervals and cover the entire range of the present collection of manuscripts.

Introduction The present catalogue forms the third volume of the Catalogue of Manuscripts deposited in the Mss. Library of the Deccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute, Poona, and deals with the manuscripts on the Dharmasastra section numbering 512 in all. Although it is not possible to arrange the Mss. in water- tight compartments, they are presumably classified broadly under the following categories: 1 Smrtis and their commentaries (Nos. 1-25); 2 Nibandhas (26-151); 3 Time (152-167); 4 Sapiodya (168-173), 5 Dana (174-187); 6 Praya citta (188-234) 7 Asauca 8 Prayoga and Paddhati (262 317); Sahakara (318-327) 10 Karma (328-330); 11 Kunda (331-345), 12 Gotra (346-352), 13 Dattaka (353-354), 14 Sraddha (258-261 and 355-431); and 15 Miscellaneous (432-512). 1. SMRTIS AND COMMENTARIES (1-25) This section deals with the manuscripts of Smrti works and the commentaries thereon. Among the important Smrtis mention may be made of the Manusmrti, Yajnavalkyasmyti with the com- mentary, Mitaksara, Vispusmrti, Parasarasmrti with commentary, as also a few minor Smrtis ascribed to Asvalayana, Devala, Usanas, Vasistha, Daksa, Samkha and others.

The section on the Nibandhas or Digests is fairly represented and we find many important works mentioned in this section. The Nibandhas deal with numerous topics of the Dharmasastra literature and some of them e. g. the Mayükhas of Nilakantha- bhaskara deal with specific topics. In such cases it is difficult to put them in one class or the other and as such they are included under the section on the nibandhas or digests. Among such works we find the compilations such as Danamayükha, Prayaścitta- mayukha, Santiratna and severel others which deal with specific aspects of Dharmasastra.

**Contents and Sample Pages**