LITERARY FINDS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 20

LITERARY FINDS

Valuable Books

Hunt for tiger, elephant, or Tjpar So ftot produce the'thrilling interest of the hunt for ancient Indian manuscripts, declared J. van Manen, secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, discussing his methods of tracing the valuable literary finds, reports the "Christian Science Monitor."

"No tiger draws its hunters into more out-of-the-way places than the bundle of manuscripts written, in the dialect of some insignificant hill tribe. The great fields of research," he added, "are Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian literature. Enormous amounts of material still await discovery in various odd cornfers of India. Thousands of manuscripts lie neglected in the possession of people who have not perpetuated the learning of their ' ancestors. .':

''Happily, within the last few decades people have started tb: collect the manuscripts in earnest. But funds are often insufficient, especially when it is a question of stepping in at the ( right..niomenjhta save important works at a comparatively small outlay.

"In the Mohammedan towns of Northern India families in. straitened circumstances are often the possessors of stacks of books, among,which works of value* are often to be'fpund.' Yet these books are treated-aa old-rubbish and are rapidly deteriorating, befpre the climate and the, insects; 'In- the South of India, where palm leaf is' used more than paper, I have bought thousands of Sanskrit MSS. that were sold by weight like sack's of potatoes."

Turning to vernacular literature of a more recent date, Mr. van Manen described.how, while living in the Himalayas, he was able to rescue.,an almost . complete set of .current Lepcha- literature. The collection cpnsisted of 120 volumes representing about 30 different works, which constituted virtually the sum total of Lepcha literature."

. The Ahoms of Upper Assam, he said, had a restricted literature of . which only a few books were in public institutions. These works were written in an old. form of the language no longer understood by the people in general, so that unless they were rescued; their term of further existence was problematical. :

""Some ten years ago," continued Miv van Manen,-"the All-India Conierenee,of Librarians at Lahore pressed the Government to take measures to rescue such literature. The Government opened an inquiry and the Asiatic Society of Bengal, urged immediate action, but it-was found that lack of funds would not allow such a step."