Literary and Cultural Activities of the All-India Kashiraj Trust

Literary and Cultural Activities of the All-India Kashiraj Trust [sarva bharatiya kasirajanyasasya karyavivaranam] / 216-222

The following is a brief review of the work of the PuranaDepartment and of the other cultural activities of the All-India Kashiraj Trust, carried out since the publication of the previous review in 'Purana' (III. 2) Critical Editions of the Puranas. 1. Matsya-Turana. As has already been noted in the previous review, four manuscripts of the Matsya-Purana, deposited in the Oriental Library, Mysore, have also been collated besides the thirty manuscripts collated previously, a detailed description of which appeared in 'Purana' Vol. 1 (pp. 101-111). The additional verses of these four manuscripts have also been copied separately and arranged alphabetically. A separate inventory of the Matsya-Puiana verses missing in the four Mysore-Mss. has also been prepared. In addition to this, the following work at Madras has also been done under the guidance and supervision of Dr. V. Raghavan: (i) In collecting Matsya-Purana quotations from the Smrti-Nibandhas and noting variants found therein, fifty more Niband has have been gone through during this period ; such as dandaviveka, vivadaratnakara, gotrapravaranibandha- kadamba, vyavaharanirnaya, krtyasarasamuccaya, danamayukha, madanamaharnava, smrtiratnakara, purusarthamcantamani, etc. (ii) Extra verses in the Nibandhas examined so far, which are not found in the printed editions of the MatsyaPurana, have been separately copied ; (iii) A complete Examination of the Matsya-Purana as compared with all other Puranas has been made to find out how many lines of the Matsya are there which are not traceable in the other Puranas. A concordance of these verses of the Matsya has been prepared ;

Jan. 1962] ACTIVITIES OF THE KASHIRAJ TRUST 217 (iv) An inventory with chapter-references of the MatsyaPurana quotations found in the Sabda kalpadruma has also been prepared, and variants noted; (v) Availing of the opportunity of the Srinagar Session of All-India Oriental Conference, Matsya-Mss, in Jammu and Hoshiarpur were examined by Dr. V. Raghavan ; noteworthy points and necessary data have been collected from these manuscripts. 2. Vamana-Purana: As has been stated previously, Dr. V. S. Agrawala of the Banaras Hindu University has been entrusted with the work of preparing the critical edition of the Vamana-Purana. For this purpose several Mss. have been collated, detailed description of which was given in 'Purana', (Vol. III, No. 1). The Bengali-script manuscript (No. 353-71-B-3; No. 3989 of H. P. Shastri's Catalogue, V) belonging to the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, is now being collated at Varanasi, and the collation of the Sarada Manuscript procured from the B. H. University is also shortly to be taken in hand. It might be noted here that there is a dearth of scholars who can easily read and collate the old Sarada and Bengali Mss. of the Puranas. Some Mss. of the Vamana-Purana appearing as its older version, and showing the Vaisnava character of the old Vamana P. are deposited in the Sarasvati Mahal Library, Tanjore (South India). Their collation has been arranged under the supervision of Dr. V. Raghavan at Madras. An alphabetical pada-index of the slokas of the Vamana-Purana has also been prepared for collecting VamanaPuiana quotations from the Nibandha-granthas. Purana-Concordance The Purana Concordance according to the plan published in 'Purana' Vol. I, No. 1, is in progress. A complete subjectindex of the Vamana Purana has been published in 'Purana' Vol. III, No. 1, and that of the Kurma-Purana in 'Purana' Vol. III, No. 2, for eliciting the opinions of scholars. The work on the other Puranas is also going on. The subject-index of the 28

218 puranam - PURANA [Vol. IV, No. 1 Visnu Purana which has been completed is now being revised. The subject-slips of the Brahma, Matsya, Vayu, Brahmanda, Agni and Linga Puranas have been prepared and are to be revised. Formerly it was planned that the work of preparing the subject-concordance of all the Puranas should be done together, so that a complete and integrated subject-concordance of the Puranas may be prepared. But now for the sake of convenience the Concordance is to be prepared in three volumes, each volume will contain the concordance of about six Puranas. The first volume of the Concordance of six Puranas is now being prepared. 'Purana' Bulletin The 'Purana' Bulletin which has now become an important organ of the Purana Department of the Kashiraj Trust, and which provides an exclusive forum for Puranic studies has secured the appreciation and co-operation of prominent Indologists, both Indian and foreign. A number of Oriental Journals-such as 'Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, the 'Orientalist', Poona, the Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, the Journals of the Adyar Library and the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, the 'Oriental Research', Madras, 'Our Heritage' of the Government Sanskrit College, Calcutta, 'Archiv Orientalni' (Journal of the Oriental Institute of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague), the WZKSO' (Journal of the Indological Institute, University of Vienna), 'East and West' (Journal of the Italian Institute, Rome', and several others are received by us in exchange of our 'PURANA' Bulletin. Besides these Oriental Research-Journals, we receive 'Kalyana' of the Gita Press, Gorakhpur, the 'Advent' of the Aravindo Ashrama, Pondicherry, 'Bharati Bhavana Journal and 'Bharati' of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavana, Bombay, on the exchange basis. All-India Oriental Conference, Srinagar also We are glad to note that Dr. V. Raghavan, who is a member of our Purana-Committee and of the Editorial Board, was

Jan. 1962] ACTIVITIES OF THE KASHIRAJ TRUST 219 elected as the General President of the Srinagar session of this Conference. In his Presidential address he made a reference to the project of the All-India Kashiraj Trust for the critical editions of the Puranas, and specially to the Matsya Purana edition which is being prepared at Madras under his own editorship. Prof. D. R. Mankad also in his Presidential address in the History Section referred to the efforts of the Kashiraj Trust for Puranic textual reconstruction in the form of the critical editions of the Puranas. Shri Anand Swarup Gupta represented the All-India Kashiraj Trust, and read his paper there. At this conference he also contacted a number of scholars, specially those interested in the Puranic studies, and acquainted them with the Purana-work of the Kashiraj Trust. Sardar K. M. Panikkar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu and Kashmir, in his letter of 26th December, much appreciated the Purana project of the Kashiraj Trust and has specially shown his interest in the 'Purana' Bulletin. Shri A. S. Gupta also visited the Raghunath Sanskrit Library at Jammu, and consulted some important Mss. of Matsya and Vamana Puranas. contains about 7000 manuscripts including about 300 Purana Mss. It is expected that in future the Trust will be able to make use of this collection with the kind help of the LibraryAuthorities. It Veda-Parayana annual As has been said in the previous review, the parayana (recitation of the complete text) of the Veda from memory is arranged twice a year on the Vyasa Purnima (July) and Vasanta Panchami (Jan.-Feb.) occasions, with donation of Rs. 1100 by H. H. Maharaja Dr. Shri Vibhuti Narayan Singh. On the present Vasanta Panchami occasion, the Rgveda with its Brahmana and Upanisad is being recited from memory by Pt. Sakharam Maheshwar Padhye of Kolhapur Distt. (Maharashtra).

220 puranam - PURANA Purana Patha and Pravachana [Vol. IV, No. 1 According to the scheme given in the last review, the Varaha Purana was recited in November last, and a series of nine discourses on it were delivered by Pt. Neelmeghacharya, Professor of Sanskrit University, Varanasi. In the present month (Feb.) the Kalika Purana has been recited, and a series of discourses on it have been given by Pt. Vishwanath Shastri Datar of the Sanga Veda Vidyalaya, Varanasi. Shivala Bhavana Pravachana Kendra Shri Dilip Kumar Roy, a great devotee and scholar, gave a discourse on bhakti in the Shivala Bhavana Pravachana-Kendra, on 10th Nov. and on the following day sang devotional songs or bhajanas which attracted a large audience and kept the listeners spell-bound. He, with his party, stayed at the Nadesar House for two days as the guest of His Highness, the Chairman of the Kashiraj Trust. Visit by distinguished scholars Several distinguished foreign scholars interested in Indology, visited the Purana Department, and acquainted themselves with the Purana project of the Kashiraj Trust. The Chairman of the Trust personally discussed with these scholars the activities of the Trust. The literature so far published by the Trust was also presented to them. Among these scholars the names of Dr. Nasr, Professor of Philosophy in the Tehran University, Dr. Juan Roger Riviere, Prof. of Indology in the University of Madrid and Chief Scientific Officer of the Higher Council for Scientific Research of Spain and also a contributor to our 'Purana' Bulletin, Prof. Philippe Lavistine of Paris University, and Prof. R. H. L. Slater of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, deserve special mention. The first two scholars stayed at Nadesar House as the guests of His Highness. The delegates of the All-India Numismatic Society attending its Jubilee Celebrations at Varanasi, and the delegates

Jan. 1962] ACTIVITIES OF THE KASHIRAJ TRUST 221 of the All-India Philosophical Conference and Social Conference which also held their Sessions at Varanasi, were entertained at a tea-party by His Highness Maharaja Dr. Vibhuti Narain Singh in the last week of December. These delegates acquainted themselves with the Purana work and other cultural activities of the Kashiraj Trust. Dr. A. K. Narayan, Secretary of the Numismatic Society, and Dr. T. Mahadevan, President of the Philosophical Conference, specially showed interest in the Purana work of the Trust. These scholars were good enough to show their readiness for co-operating with the cultural activities and specially the Purana work of the Kashiraj Trust Critical Edition of Ramacharita-Manasa The critically edited version of Gosvami Tulasidasa's Ramacharita-Manasa published by the Kashiraj Trust released on the 12th January, 1962. At a public function arranged by the Trust at the Shivala Bhavana the first copy of this publication was presented by its editor, Acharya Shri Vishwanath Prasad Misra, to Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, who received it reverentially, and remarked in his speech that the Ramacharita-Manasa is great epic which has moulded the lives of millions of the people in India and has become a part of their lives. Originally the work of the critical edition of the Ramacharita Manasa was started by His Highness Maharaja Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh in 1846, when the modern graphsystem of collation was pioneered by the scholars of Kashi who collated a number of Manasa-Mss. for the purpose of preparing its authentic edition; but somehow the work could not proceed further at that time. By God's grace it has now seen its completion. The present work is the first of its kind. It is a scientifically prepared edition of the Rama charita-Manasa, prepared after examining all the available manuscript-evidence dating within a hundred years of the Poet's death. The personal Library of His Highness, the Maharaja of Banaras, contains one of the richest

222 puranam - PURANA [Vol. IV, No. 1 collections of the Manasa literature, which was made available to the Kashiraj Trust for this purpose. The Trust also procured other Manuscripts from different collections in India and abroad. The present Maharaja, His Highness Maharaja Vibhuti Narayan Singh donated a sum of Rs. 50,000/- to the Trust, to complete the work of the critical edition of the Manasa started by his Ishwari illustrious great-grand-father, Maharaja Narayan Singh, a hundred years ago. Prasad The Kashiraj Trust gratefully acknowledges the kind help given by the Banaras Hindu University and specially by its Vice-Chancellor, Justice Sri N. H. Bhagavati, in lending the services of Prof. Vishwanath Prasad Misra for preparing the critical edition of the Ramacharita-Manasa. On the occasion of the release of the Manasa edition, His Highness, the Maharaja of Banaras, gave a garden party to the honoured guests, Shri U. Nu, Prime Minister of Burma, and Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, on 12th January, 1962, both of whom were his guests at the Nadesar House. We offer our felicitations to His Highness Maharaja Shri Vibhuti Narayan Singh, Chairman of the Kashiraj Trust, on his receiving the degree of D. Litt. honoris causa from the Banaras Hindu University this year for his patronage, contribution and advancement of the cause of education and Indology. We also offer our hearty congratulations to Dr. V. Raghavan for his receiving the Republic Day honour of Padma Bhushan.