LITERARY FINDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 4

LITERARY FINDS.

'VALUABLE BOOKS. Hunt for tiger, elephant, or boar do not produce the -thrilhng-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 corners of India. Thousands of manuscripts lie neglected in the possession of people who have not perpetuated the learning of their ancestors.

“Happily, with the last few decades people have started to collect the maim-, scripts in earnest. "But funds are-often insufficient,, especially when, it is, a , question of stepping in at the right moment to 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 found; Yet these books are treated an old rubbish arid are, rapidly deter ioriating before the climate arid the bisects. In the south of India, where palm leaf is used more than paper, 1 have bought thousands of Sanskrit MSS.' that were sold by weight like sacks 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 consisted of 'l2O 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 10 years ago,” continued Mr van Manen, “ the All-India Conference 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.” -