1877.] Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. in the Society's Lihrary. 183 



and an index. The Pali collections of the London and Paris libraries suffice 

 for constituting my text. Any notes that may be deemed necessary, wiU 

 be in English. The work will consist of 5 volumes of together 1900 to 2000 

 pages, taking as a model the size of Childer's edition of the Mahdpari- 

 I fiihhdnasuttam in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for Great Britain 

 and Ireland. The printing expenses will amount to about £600. Messrs, 

 Williams and Norgate, (Henrietta Street, London) have consented to 

 undertake the publishing, if the greater part of this sum can be co- 

 vered by subventions or subscriptions. The price of a copy will be 

 £3. If the sufficient part of the expenses can be covered, the first 

 volume will be published probably at the middle of next year, and the 

 whole work will be finished after three or four years. 



" I venture to appeal to the Society, which has already done so much 

 to encourage Oriental learning, to afford me such assistance as they shall 

 think that the present undertaking may deserve." 



Dr. Eajet^dealala Mitra submitted a copy of the first part of a de- 

 scriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. in the Society's Library, prepared under 

 his superintendence and edited by him. It contained full notices of all the 

 works on Sanskrit grammar belonging to the Society. In submitting it, he 

 desired to call the special attention of the members to the MS. treasures 

 of the Society. To those, he said, who were familiar with the great nation- 

 al libraries of Europe, the Society's Library cannot but appear poor. In- 

 stead of lacs, it comprised only from 15 to 20 thousand volumes, and almost 

 every branch of the library was more or less deficient. The books, however, 

 had been very carefully selected, and, in connexion with oriental studies, 

 there was very little of real value that was not available to the members. 

 The library, however, was particularly rich in MSS. Of Arabic works there 

 were 1316 codices, of Persian 1549, and of Urdu 399, making a total of 3264 

 The collection of Pali and Burmese MSS. included nearly five hundred 

 palm-leaf records. Of old Tibetan xylographs, which were quite as valua- 

 ble and scarce as MSS., there were upwards of 2000 separate works, and 

 the Chinese collection included nearly four hundred ancient texts. There 

 was then a collection of 3,700 Sanskrit codices, making altogether a total, 

 the like of which could not be had in any other public or quasi-public libra- 

 ry in India. Some of the MSS. were very old and remarkably correct ; a 

 few were positively unique. The value of the collection was, however, as 

 regards the members very much impaired by the absence of good cata- 

 logues. There were nominal lists, but the}^ were extremely troublesome to 

 consult, and even such lists did not exist of all the MSS. Attempts had been 

 made from time to time to supply better helps, but owing to some cause or 

 other they had to be given up. As regards the Sanskrit codices, Dr. Mitra 



