Indische Handschriften, pt. 12: Die Sammlung der Niedersachsischen Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek Gottingen.

• Author: Rocher, Ludo
• Position: Review

By GERHARD EHLERS. Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, vol. II.12. Pp. 269. Stuttgart: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1995. DM 124.

The first volume of the Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, VOHD for short, was published in 1961. The editor of the series at that time was Wolfgang Voigt. Tens and tens of volumes have followed since, all of them published uniformly in beautiful, sturdy, black hard-cover tomes. An appendix to the volume under review includes a useful list of all volumes published till 1995, as well as of many that are still "in Vorbereitung." Of the forty-one projected "Bande," volume 2, "Indische Handschriften," comprises the largest number of parts: twelve so far (in addition to seven volumes devoted to "Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden"). Note that volumes II.2 and II.4 (cf. my reviews JAOS 93 [1973]: 374-75 and 97 [1977]: 369-70) went under the title "Indische und nepalische Handschriften." Even though, as in the present volume, "gewisse Uberscheidungen [sich] nicht vermeiden lassen" (p. 9), there is now a separate volume (no. 33) for Nepalese Manuscripts (part one prepared by Siegfried Lienhard, 1988).

Volume II.12 devotes 215 pages to the description of 264 manuscripts (nos. 4382-4645, pp. 17-236). It expands on, and supersedes, the earlier (1989) survey of the manuscripts at the Niedersachsische Staats-...