Kenneth G. Zysk Indological Manuscript Collection

Background

The collection consists of approximately 3000 Indic manuscripts collected from Brahmin families in the Varanasi area from the 1990s onwards. The majority was written on country-made paper in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some were written on palm leaves, and a few date as far back as the 15th and 16th centuries. The language is predominantly Sanskrit, including a sizable portion of manuscripts written in various forms of Old Hindi. Most genres of Sanskrit literature are represented, but the collection is especially strong within the genres of ritual, law, and astral science.

The collection was donated to CSIS by Kenneth G. Zysk in 2020, and is currently being examined (see the handlist-in-progress below).

Subcollections

A preliminary examination of some 600 manuscripts in the collection provides information about the provenance of the subcollections to which they belong.

One subcollection of about 150 manuscripts belonged to Vijayānand Tripāṭhī (1881-1955) from Tulsi Ghat, Varanasi, who was a famous commentator on the Rāmcaritmānas. Several of his manuscripts appear to have been originally copied and owned by a certain Bhāgavad Dās who probably lived in Varanasi around the middle of the 19th century,

Another subcollection of more than 200 manuscripts derives from families in Utter Pradesh and Bihar, with special emphasis on the districts around Varanasi, Allahabad, and Ghazipur. Several manuscripts can be attributed to the hands of two scribes from Ghazipur. Gusāmī Gulābgīr lived in the first half of the 19th century, as evidenced by manuscripts dated between 1802 and 1839, while Bholānāth Pāṇḍe lived in the second half of the 19th century, as evidenced by manuscripts dated between 1861 to 1885.

A third subcollection, also consisting of above 200 manuscripts, comes from a family in the Mithila region of Bihar. The principal focus of the collection is Dharmaśāstra, indicating a connection in the family to traditional Hindu law.

A further subcollection was acquired from Chowkhamba in Varanasi, one of the oldest publishers of printed editions of Sanskrit texts. The manuscripts provide a unique insight into the process of editing and publishing Sanskrit texts in the mid- to late 19th century. Some manuscripts are even accompanied by transcripts that were subsequently typeset and printed.

Sample manuscripts

A few rare and early manuscripts discovered in the collection deserve special mention:

• Aśvāyurveda by Gaṇa. A manuscript on the veterinary medicine of horses, dated 1635.
• Aṣṭāvavakrasaṃkhyākrama by Aṣṭāvakra. A manuscript on the philosophical system of Advaita Vedānta dated 1670.
• Allopaniṣad. A manuscript of a Hindu text devoted to Allah, dating from the first half of the 19th century.
• Uttaratāpanīyopaniṣad. A manuscript on Indian philosophy dated 1675.
• Kālanirṇayaprakāśa by Rāmacandra. A manuscript on Indian law and astral science dated 1618.
• Jñānadharmāpta by Jayakṛṣṇabrahma. A manuscript on Yoga from the first half of the 19th century.
• Jyotiṣasarvasaṃgraha. A manuscript on astral science dated 1815.
• Nāḍīparīkṣa by Ravaṇa. A manuscript on Indian pulse-lore dated 1888.
• Brahmalakṣaṇavākyārthasaṃgraha by Śivokopa Muni. A work on the philosophical system of Vedānta.
• Brāhmaṇasarvasva by Halāyudha. A manuscript on law dated 1718.
• Bhāgavatakathāsaṃgraha by Keśavaśarman. A manuscript on Indian legend and folklore dated 1850.
• Bhṛgusaṃhitā by Bhṛgu. A manuscript on Indian astrology from the late 18th century.
• Yogasūtra of Patañjali, with the Yogadarpaṇa commentary of Dāmodarasarma. A manuscript on Yoga from the early 19th century.
• Vṛttaratnākara by Kedārabhaṭṭa, with commentary. An early manuscript on prosody dated 1649.
• Vedāntasiddhāntamuktāvalī of Prakāsānanda with the Muktāvalīṭīkā commentary by Nānādīkṣita. A manuscript on Indian philosophy from the early 19th century.
• Vratapaddhati by Rudradharaśarman. A manuscript on law written in Newarī script in the 16th century.
• Śyainikaśāstra by Rudracandradeva, the Mahāraja of Kūmaracala. A manuscript on Indian falconry from 1836.
• Sarvasaṃgraha by Narottama. A manuscript on astral science.

Handlist-in-progress

The handlist is meant to provide preliminary information about individual manuscripts as they are being examined. It will be updated in batches as and when we finish them. The first batch included here derives from the Mithila subcollection mentioned above.