Indische Handschriften, pt. 13: Die Sammlung Ms or fol der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin--Preussischer Kulturbesitz.

• Author: Rocher, Ludo
• Position: Brief Reviews of Books

Indische Handschriften, pt. 13: Die Sammlung Ms or fol der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin--Preussischer Kulturbesitz. By GERHARD EHLERS. Verzeichnis der orientalistischen Handschriften in Deutschland, vol. II.13. Stuttgart: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1999. Pp. 200. DM 98.

Part 12 of the Indische Handschriften, published in 1995, described 264 manuscripts (nos. 4382-4645) preserved at the Niedersaksische Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek in Gottingen (see my review, JAOS 119 [1999]: 200). Its successor deals with 252 manuscripts (nos. 4646-4897, some of these representing more than one text) of the collection Ms.or.fol. of the Staatsbibliothek Berlin--Preussischer Kulturbesitz, the largest collection of Oriental manuscripts to be catalogued in the Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland (VOHD).

As I indicated in my earlier review, the manuscripts described in the present volume, as in its predecessor, incorporate former private collections. Thirteen palm leaf manuscripts (nos. 4659-4861) belonged to F. Otto Schrader; another five (nos. 4862-4866) were the property of Eugen Hultzsch (three of which he used for his edition of the Baudhayanadharmasutra, 1884/1922).

The majority of paper manuscripts relate to the epics and, even more so, to the puranas, some of them in Bengali script (nos. 4872-2897). Yajurveda manuscripts outweigh by far Rgveda titles (samhitas, brahmanas, and upanisads). Belles lettres, grammar, lexicography, and poetics are hardly represented...