[October, 1873.

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

MISCELLANEA. DR. BüHLER'S REPORT ON SANSKRIT MSS.

WE extract the following from Dr. Bühler's Re port for 1872-73 to the Director of Public Instruc

The Sarasvatipurána is a complete copy of the fragment noticed in last year's report. The list of manuscripts of poetical works con tains several original compositions and commen

tion :-

taries, which I have not seen mentioned

Two new fascicles, Nos. III. and IV., of this work have been published during the past year.

The most important among them are the Vrihat kathá of Kshemendra and the Parthaparākrama. The honour of the first discovery of the former work belongs to A. Burnell, Esq., M.C.S., not to myself (as stated in the Indian Antiquary). But the copy in my list appears to be the only other known manuscript besides that of Mr. Burnell, and, though incomplete, it contains very import ant portions of the original, which are wanting in that gentleman's manuscript. In an article in the Indian Antiquary I have pointed out how great the importance of the Vrihatkathá is for the history of the Indian collections of apologues. I may add that further researches have convinced me that it settles completely the question which of the many versions of the Panchatantra is the original one, and that it allows us to ascer

IN GUJARAT.

The materials collected in 1868-69 have now been

exhausted. The issue of a supplementary number, giving addenda, indices, etc. is still required. This part, as well as a fascicle of the catalogue of Jaina works, is still in preparation. Several large collections of Jaina books in Cambay, Limdi, and Ahmadābād have been partly catalogued. The extent and the condition of these libraries prevent me, however, from causing com

plete lists of their contents to be made. Several of them contain upwards of 10,000 manuscripts, and sometimes hundreds of copies of one and the same work are found in one library. Thus a library at Ahmadābād contains, according to the statement of the cataloguing Shastri, four hundred

elsewhere.

copies of the Avasyakasūtra. This assertion will

tain the form of that work as it stood in the

appear neither astonishing nor incredible if it is borne in mind that devout Jainas frequently give or bequeath large sums of money to the superin tendents of monasteries for copying books, and that the multiplication of the sacred writings is held to be highly meritorious. To make complete catalogues of such libraries is out of the question. In the course of 1873-74 I hope to finish the exploration of two out of the three large Jaina

4th century A.D. The Panchatantra, at that period, closely resembled the so-called Southern

libraries at Ahmadābād and of those at Wadhvan,

and to begin with the Bhandhārs at Siddhapur Pāthan. But I despair of finishing my task during either the current or the next following year.

During the period under report I have bought or procured copies of 200 manuscripts, out of which number 75 belong to Brahmanical litera ture and 123 to the Jainas, while 2 contain

famous Gujarāti prose-works. Among the Brah manical works there are several novelties and

rare works, to which I beg to call special attention. Thus No. 2, the Bhāshya on the Mantras, quoted in the Pâraskara-grihya-sătra (I. II. 3) of the White Yajurveda, attempts a task which is usually neglected by the writers on Vedic ceremonies, and it is, at all events, highly interesting to see what meaning a Brahminical writer attributed to the prayers which the Bhattas usually mutter without understanding or caring to understand them. Among the Purānas the Vahnipurăila is new to me. It is not identical with the Agni purälja.

redaction.

The second work mentioned above, the Pärtha

parākrama, is a drama of the class called Vyāyoga, a military piece celebrating the deeds of Arjuna. Its author, the Yuvarāja or heir-apparent Prah lādana, who lived under a king of the name of

Dhārāvarsha, is quoted by Sārangadhara, the author of a large collection of elegant extracts made in the 14th century. King Dhārāwarsha, from whose unnamed capital the mountain Nandivardhana could be seen, lived

probably in the 10th century A. D. The play is important, as only one other Vyāyoga was hither to known. The manuscript was found in a Jaina library. Among the works pertaining to the Shāstras, the Agnivesasamhitā, one of the oldest works on medi cine, written in the Sätra style, and the Viśrānta vidyāvinoda, a work on veterinary surgery attri buted to King Bhoja, deserve to be noted specially.

The latter work is different from the short popular treatise usually called Sälillotra, and attributed likewise to the famous king of Målwa. As regards the Jaina books, I stated already in last year's report that the purchases of 1872-73 promised to become highly important. My hopes in this respect have been completely fulfilled. I have obtained some very old palm-leaf manu scripts, Nos. 78-80, 113-114, 128-132, which are all between five and six hundred years old. The -