Annual Report. [February, 1916. 



existence of the Bureau, enquiries are coming in from various 

 quarters on a variety of subjects ; and they are being promptly 

 attended to. 



Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts. 



As the staff was engaged in preparing the catalogue, very 

 little new work was done in the search for manuscripts. A few 

 Nepalese paper manuscripts were purchased. 



Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts. 



The number of MSS. catalogued up to December, 1915, was 

 7768, the work of the year being represented by 630. A speci- 

 men volume of the catalogue, namely that of the Buddhist 

 manuscripts, has been prepared and sent to the press. The pre- 

 face to the second volume of the Catalogue of Palmleaf and 

 Selected Paper Manuscripts of the Durbar Library of Nepal 

 has been issued. 



Bibliotheca Indica. 



Of the six fasciculi of texts of different dimensions published 

 in the Bibliotheca Indica series during the year under review, 

 two belong to Brahmanic Sanskrit, one belongs to Kashmiri 

 literature and the remaining three belong to Arabic and 

 Persian literature. Among these, five are continuations of works 

 taken in hand some years ago and only one is a new work 

 published this year. The new work is " Faridatu'l-'Asr M ; 

 it is a comprehensive index of persons, places, books, etc. 

 referred to in the Yatimatu'l Dahr, the famous anthology 

 of Tha ' Alibi, and has been prepared by Maulavi Abu Musa 

 Ahmadu'l Haqq of Dacca. 



For want of funds a sufficient number of text books could 

 not be published last year. As there are savings this year in 

 the Bibliotheca Fund and as new rules have been framed for 

 the guidance of the editors and the press, it is hoped that 

 the Bibliotheca publications will be adequate and regular in 

 the coming year. 



Search for Arabic and Persian MSS. 



During the year no MSS. were purchased on behalf of 

 the Government. The efforts of the Officer-in-charge of the 

 search were directed rather to ascertaining the existence and 

 whereabouts of rare and interesting MSS. than to purchasing 

 them, if in good keeping. To further this object, the first 

 travelling Maulavi has been engaged in the preparation of short 

 bibliographical account of MSS. in various libraries, book- 

 stores, etc. in India which he has visited. Considerable progress 

 has been made with the preparation of these notices, and the 

 results of his labours will shortly be published monthly in 



