It gives me pleasure to publish this Descriptive Catalogue of Visistadvaitic works for the benefit of serious students of Philosophy and Sanskrit. The Academy has striven to collect and preserve to the extent of its limited resources, a part of the priceless treasure of knowledge of our land recorded in palm leaves by dedicated and assiduous pandits long ago. The intention of this Academy is that this knowledge should reach scholars of today studying philosophy in India and elsewhere. This volume is prepared as the first step in this direction. English language is chosen in preparing Part A which is a table with fourteen columns. The codes used are elaborated elsewhere in the book. Part B consists of the beginning, ending and colophon as they appear in each of the texts referred to in Part A in alphabetical order.
I believe that the information regarding the manuscript library of the Academy, open to the scholars of the present day through the pages of this work, would prove useful in appreciating the sincere efforts made by the traditional pandits of yesteryears and in understanding Indian philosophy as interpreted by Ramanuja and his followers.
I appreciate the role played by Prof. M.A. Lakshmithathachar and his colleagues, in particular Vidvan Narasaraja Bhattar, in bringing out this work. My thanks are also due to the Government of India for their financial assistance to prepare and publish this catalogue.
The Academy of Sanskrit Research, established in Melkote, the holy Badarikasrama of the South, for intensive study and research in the field of Visistadvaita and its comparative study with other systems of thought, has taken up the preservation of our cultural heritage to the posterity as one of its avowed objectives. Accordingly, the Academy is putting forth its sincere efforts to collect the old palm-leaf and paper manuscripts which are scattered all over India, which require proper care and preservation. With this objective in view, the Academy is steadily increasing collection of manuscripts for the last six to seven years and now the number of manuscripts so collected has gone up to 8,310.
Though the Academy is interested in indepth study of Visistadvaita philosophy, it has spared no efforts to collect manuscripts belonging to other disciplines like Itihasa, Purana, Ayurveda, etc. In this collection there are more than 1,500 manuscripts pertaining to the field of Višistadvaita philosophy.
The philosophy of Visistadvaita is also referred to as the Ramanuja school of philosophy, as it was he who tried his best to propagate this philosophy in India which has a universal appeal. According to this philosophy, the whole of this world consists of sentient and insentient beings which are inseparably associated with the Supreme Self. The goal of the individual self is to attain the Supreme Brahman, by accepting Him as the means as well, for reaching the goal. This philosophy brings out the identity of the Reality, the means and the goal as inseparable ones, which is nothing but the Supreme Brahman.
As the Librarian, I was entrusted to prepare the Descriptive Catalogue of Visistadvaitic works available at the manuscripts library of the Academy and I am happy to give shape to the same in the present form, taking valuable guidance from the Director at every stage of its preparation.
The following format is followed in this work. It consists of two parts-A and B. Part A is in English in the form of tables with 14 columns. 350 works are listed alphabetically (अकारादि), containing the following information on each work:
1) Serial number (Sl. No)
2) Accession number (Accn. No) 3) Title of the work
4) Author
5) Material used (Mtl.)
6) Script (Scpt.)
7) Size in inches
8) Number of folios
9) Lines per page (Lns.)
10) Number of letters per line (lts.)
11) Extent of the manuscript (Ext.)
'C' denotes complete and
'Inc' denotes incomplete
12) Condition of the manuscript (Condition)
Old/good/bad/injured
13) Whether the manuscript is published or not
14) Additional information
The opening and closing paragraphs and the colophon of each work are reproduced in Part B in Sanskrit. These details will facilitate the scholars who consult this work in knowing the contents of each work clearly and to select the one needed for their reference.
Astrology (115)
Ayurveda (106)
Gita (76)
Hinduism (1356)
History (144)
Language & Literature (1745)
Learn Sanskrit (26)
Mahabharata (29)
Performing Art (69)
Philosophy (452)
Puranas (117)
Ramayana (49)
Sanskrit Grammar (256)
Sanskrit Text Book (32)
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