Sir Frederick Tymms: the flying civil servant

Frederick Tymms (on the left), with Rod Doucla [sic]
whilst working on the Cape to Cairo Air Route in 1929
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/9/30

Frederick Tymms (2nd from left), camera in hand,
with Wolley Dod, Lindup, and Francis, whilst planning the Cape to Cairo Air Route, 1929
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/9/10

Frederick Tymms (2nd from left) in Allahabad in 1934
with T. Campbell Black and C.W. Scott for the England-Australia Race
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/15/1

'Imperial Airways - Delhi Flying Club - handing over',  January 1932
Cambridge University Library RCMS 20/2/10/139

The Royal Commonwealth Society collections in Cambridge University Library hold the archives of Sir Frederick Tymms,  RCMS 20, one of the most significant figures in the development of civil aviation, referred to by his biographer, E.A. Johnston, as the 'Flying Civil Servant'.

Tymms served as an Observer in the Royal Flying Corps during WW1, then joined the civil aviation department of the Air Ministry 1920-1927 where he became involved in the development of air routes across Africa and India in the 1920s and 30s.  His archives document the difficulties of locating suitable landing strips at regular distances across each continent and the excitement at the opening of new aerodromes. 

During the 1930s and much of the 1940s Tymms was in India where he was appointed Director of Civil Aviation 1931-1942. For a brief period in 1942-1943 he became Managing Director of Tata Aircraft Ltd, Bombay, and from 1945-1947 was Director General of Civil Aviation in India.  The Tymms archive is rich in photographs from this period - see: RCMS 20/2/ 10-19.  There are views of the grand Secretariat buildings in New Delhi, in which Tymms had an office, of the Delhi Flying Club which he joined, and of his travels all over South Asia looking for viable air routes and opening aerodromes.  Early air races are documented, such as the MacRobertson England-Australia Race in 1934, as are numerous air stations and aeroplanes.  Tymms took photographs in Burma and the collection has fine aerial photography of the Arakan Coast. He also  took many photographs in Simla, the hill station to which the government moved for relief from the searing heat of Delhi, as well as in Kashmir where he holidayed with his wife. 

Tymms, a keen photographer , also captured on cinefilm some events associated with his work in civil aviation, as well as social occasions and holidays he enjoyed with family and friends.  His earliest film dates from 1925 and records the First African [aviation] Survey (Film 12).  There are three short black and white silent films made in South Asia in the early to mid-1930s - Films 16, 17 and 19.

Film 16 (the film can is labelled: Hyderabad. Jaipur. Simla. Delhi) includes busy street scenes, farming scenes, elephant rides, coastal scenes and a view of the Himalayas. There are several scenes of Qutub Minar, Delhi, of road trips, street vendors, shikar and fly fishing. 

Film 17 (the film can is labelled: North West Frontier Province. Kashmir. Palampur.  Simla) opens with views of the Khyber Pass and then moves to Dal Lake and Srinagar in Kashmir, and onto hill stations in  Himachal Pradesh.  It focuses on travel and landscape scenes, as well as local crafts.

Film 19 (the film can is labelled: Bombay. Ceylon. Burma. Singapore. Karachi) includes fishing boats, street vendors, temples, shoreline, a flower market, ball games, traditional Burmese dance, aircraft and airport buildings. It includes shots of the Shwedagon Pagoda and Buddhist monks in Rangoon, a paddle-steamer transporting railway wagons, sea-planes, Kallang airport in Singapore, and Karachi airport.

Tymms and his wife Millie had become great friends with J.R.D.(Jeh) Tata and his wife Thelly during their time in India, and they returned in October1962 to participate in Air India celebrations in Bombay on the occasion of J.R.D. Tata's reenactment of the first Karachi-Bombay flight, via Ahmedabad in 1932. Sir Frederick filmed some of the celebrations in colour.   Film 8  opens on 15th October 1962 in an Air India marquee at Bombay airport and includes footage of a Burmah-Shell Aviation Service bullock cart, a De Havilland Leopard Moth dating from the 1930s and a Boeing 707. The film also includes hugely contrasting scenes of Indian women carrying heavy stone on a building site, busy street scenes, and grand buildings in Delhi.

Tymms went on to represent the UK on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (I.C.A.O.), led missions to New Zealand and the West Indies as a trouble-shooter to promote civil aviation, and was a founding member of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. He was elected Master of the Guild in 1957.    His wide interests embraced communication technologies, satellites and space travel, and the sovereignty of space.

The Tymms collection on civil aviation was donated to Cambridge University Library by Group Captain E.A. Johnston in 1994.  Johnston's biography of Tymms, To organise the air: the evolution of civil aviation and the role of Sir Frederick Tymms, the Flying Civil Servant, was published  by Cranfield University Press in 1995, ISBN 1871315468.

Cambridge seminar on teaching history using film archives on February 11th 2014

As part of the Centre for Commonwealth Education seminar series, Education in India: a Multidisciplinary Exploration, Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes will present 'New Visual Methodologies in Teaching Modern South Asian History'

Time: Tuesday, 11 February 2014 from 12:30 to 13:30

Location: 
Donald McIntyre Building
Room GS1 
Centre for Commonwealth Education
Faculty of Education
University of Cambridge<
www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/cce
bsjh2@cam.ac.uk
01223 767 680 

ALL WELCOME; Refreshments available

Dr Motrescu-Mayes writes:

In the context of a steadily growing interest in investigating modern history with the help of visual research methods a number of historians, anthropologists and artists (Pinney 2004, Pushpamala N. 2004, Tan 2005, Spencer 2011, Kahlon 2011) have recently employed theories of visual rhetoric in the study and representation of South Asian identities. Moreover, the use of visual records as primary research sources is not anymore the prerogative of cultural historians but a pedagogical tool recurrently used by teachers and students of South Asian history. In this talk I will present several teaching and learning platforms which I have developed since 2011 in collaboration with British and South Asian historians. 

The talk will also include a selection of visual essays produced by thirty history teachers during a one-week workshop which I co-organised with the Azim Premji University, Bangalore, in September 2013. This workshop was a pedagogical exercise that highlighted the ways in which Indian history teachers could successfully use colonial amateur footage as a valid primary research source able to complement the Indian history curriculum for classes VIII-XII. The talk will conclude with a discussion on the urgency of interdisciplinary research and pedagogical methodologies pertinent to reliable and long term knowledge- transfer programs within modern South Asian studies.

SAALG 90th Conference - Friday 21st February - University of Cambridge Library

Join us for the 90th SAALG Conference which will take place on Friday 21st February at the University of Cambridge Library. The theme for the day will be 'Archives' and we will have the opportunity to learn about a variety of collections and projects - there will also be a chance to visit the new Centre of South Asian Studies building in Cambridge.  

Image: Cambridge University Library Faoch via Flickr

The full programme is as follows: 

Image: Cambridge University Library - RCS QM 8/123 - From the Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Queen Mary Collection.  A view showing crowds of people watching the arrival of the Royal Party at a palatial building, Calcutta.

The fee for the day is £20 including lunch, full directions to the Library will be sent out before the day. Please email Helen Porter, SAALG Chair hp7@soas.ac.uk or telephone 020 78984153 to make a booking or for more information. The final day for registering is Wednesday 12th February. 

The Future of South Asian Collections: UK and South Asia Perspectives, 30th April - 2 May 2014

A date for your diaries, and a call for papers...

The Sainsbury Institute for Art is organising a conference to be held at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, 30th April - 2 May 2014, entitled:

'The Future of South Asian Collections: UK and South Asia Perspectives'

Conference organisers, Emily Crane (UEA) & Diana Grattan (SADACC), write:

There are numerous and varied South Asian collections held both in the UK and in South Asia.  They range from public or government institutions to privately held collections; some are world renown and firmly established, whilst some are newly formed or a small part of bigger institutions.  Moreover, there are some collections that are well-funded but, certainly within the UK, ever-increasing financial restraints have become a major issue.

Over the last decade there have been shifts in museum practices and thinking about these particular types of collections.  Issues of conservation, documentation, storage and research remain pragmatic concerns for many. Recent collecting practices have tended to be either non-existent, predicated on existing material, in response to particular audiences or linked to specific exhibitions.  Museums have attempted to deliver programs in response to different audiences, with changing expectations and levels of participation.  Does the breadth and complexity of these issues perhaps require the need for an increasingly collective and comprehensive approach?

The conference celebrates the affiliation of the South Asian DecorativeArts and Crafts Collection (SADACC) with the Sainsbury Institute for Art (SIfA) at the University of East Anglia. The notions of 'craft' and 'world art' are explored across the SIFA institutions.  Craft has been considered as the interrelation of form, function, material, process and meaning, mediated through social, economic and cultural influences. Craft is also inextricably linked to concepts of skill and craftsmanship. This understanding of ‘craft' has certainly informed the selection and collection of objects that now form the South Asian Decorative Arts and Craft Collection.  Is it, therefore, a useful device to interpret and consider objects found in South Asia Collections? Furthermore, how do notions of 'craft' relate to debates surrounding 'world art'?

This conference aims to promote collaboration and exchanges between professionals working with collections of South Asian arts and crafts, nationally and internationally.  By sharing knowledge and experiences, it is envisaged that the conference will build and strengthen networks, and foster new partnerships.

Call for papers

Emily and Diana welcome proposals for a range of possible contributions. These may be 30 minute plenary papers or an idea for running a 50 minute discussion group. These discussion groups may be organised around a particular theme, include shorter presentations by organisers, or address a particular issue or question that fits with the theme of the conference. Furthermore, if you have ideas for shorter contributions but do not wish to run a discussion session, we will try to fit these into groups based loosely around the questions outlined on the website, led by members of the host institutions.

Please send any proposals or queries to sifaconference.sasia@gmail.com by 28 February 2014.

Please see the conference webpage for further information.

https://www.uea.ac.uk/art-history/news-and-events/south-asian-collections-conference

John Rylands Research Institute – Leverhulme Fellowships

I have been asked by Elizabeth Gow, Manuscript Curator and Archivist, at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, to disseminate information about  Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships being offered at the John Rylands Library.  These are open to applicants wishing to work on any of the Library's special collections, including their South and Southeast Asian material. 

Overviews of Southeast Asian manuscript collections at the John Rylands Library may be found at: http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/atoz/southeastasian/ 

Oriental collections at:  http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/atoz/subjectgroups/jewishneareasternoriental/#d.en.64744 and printed special collections of interest to South Asianists include: http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/searchresources/guidetospecialcollections/atoz/indianempire/

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships
John Rylands Research Institute and The School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, The University of Manchester
The John Rylands Research Institute is pleased to announce that it intends to sponsor two Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships beginning in 2014. Potential applicants are invited to submit preliminary applications by Monday 13 January 2014. Projects must demonstrate a strong connection to the University of Manchester Library’s Special Collections (see below). Interested candidates should contact the John Rylands Research Institute administrator, Silke Schaeper (silke.schaeper@manchester.ac.uk) as soon as possible. The Institute’s Director, Professor Peter E. Pormann, and grant writer, Dr Stevie Spiegl, as well as the curatorial staff of the Library can assist the candidate in formulating a viable research proposal that is based on a detailed study of material in the Special Collections.

Preliminary applications must be submitted to the SALC Research Support Manager via email (jonathan.starbrook@manchester.ac.uk) as a single PDF file.
We require (i) a one-page CV, and (ii) details of the proposal, including:
• Project title
• 100-word abstract.
• Brief statement explaining how the project links to the Library’s Special Collections.
• Project description (max. 2 sides of A4).

To quote the Leverhulme guidelines about the project description:
“This should include aims, objectives, methodology and outcome (e.g. publication plans). It should enable the Committee and your referees to form an estimate of the scope and importance of your proposal. The methodology should be clear and explicit, comprehensible to a non-expert. Include any bibliographic references in full, including page numbers where relevant. This statement and the bibliographic references may not exceed two sides of A4. Please add your name at the top of the first page.”

 The John Rylands Research Institute aims to uncover, explore, unravel and reveal hidden ideas and knowledge contained within our world-leading Special Collections. We are creating an international community of scholars and researchers across many disciplines, to support research and to bring this information to the wider public in exciting and innovative ways.

Our Special Collections have huge research potential across a wide range of disciplines. Manuscripts span 4,000 years and over fifty languages, from Gilgamesh to Gaskell. There are hundreds of archives, with particular strengths in modern literature, nonconformity, and British economic, social and political history. Rare books range from the peaks of European printing, such as Gutenberg and Caxton, and one of the world’s great collections of early Italian printing, to examples of street literature and counter-cultures. There are also collections of art and visual culture, including tens of thousands of photographs which date from the inception of photography to contemporary photographic books. In addition, we hold the largest collections of maps in the North West which offer an extensive range of topographic and thematic mapping for the UK, as well as wide-ranging coverage for the rest of the world.
More information about the Special Collections and the John Rylands Research Institute can be found here: http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/jrri/.
Note: The John Rylands Research Institute will sponsor up to a maximum of two applications

East London Mosque archives

Anyone interested in the history of the Muslim community in Britain will be excited by a project to catalogue the archives of the East London Mosque.

Project archivist Eilís McCarthy and Dr Jamil Sherif are recorded discussing the value of the Mosque's archive, and the work which will be carried out, in a 12 minute podcast on the East London Mosque website http://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/

The archive, which comprises about 250,000 documents and occupies 26 metres of shelf space, is about to be re-packaged and catalogued, and the resulting online catalogue will be of huge interest to historians.

Dynamiques des industries culturelles indiennes, CEIAS, Paris

Kriti Arora, installation ‘Spinning wheel’, India Art Summit 2008

Fancy a trip to Paris before Christmas?  An opportunity to practice your French, whilst learning about the dynamics of Indian cultural industries? If the answer is yes, then you may be interested in an event organised by the Centre d’Études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud, on Monday 9th December 2013, entitled: Dynamiques des industries culturelles indiennes.

Regular SAALG speaker, Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes (Lecturer and Research Associate, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge) will be presenting a paper entitled: An intimate craft of national memory: amateur filmmaking in post-colonial India.

For further details and the full programme see: http://actualites.ehess.fr/nouvelle5896.html

Date: Monday 9 December 2013
Location: au CEIAS, salles 638-640, 190 avenue de France, 75013 Paris

Call for papers: ‘Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history’

Call for papers: ‘Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history’ Conference, University of Cambridge, 4 – 5 April 2014 (http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25024)

CFP deadline: 3 January 2014

Conveners: Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes (University of Cambridge) and Prof. Marcus Banks (University of Oxford).

The Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS), University of Cambridge, and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) are organising the international conference on 'Visual anthropology and contemporary South Asian history’.

This conference aims to offer historians, anthropologists and postgraduate history students a unique opportunity to share and strengthen their scholarship within a cross-disciplinary research network concerned with the crucial relevance of applying theories of visual anthropology to the study of contemporary South Asian history. Invited speakers, panelists and delegates will examine the ways in which scholarship in the field of visual anthropology informs historiographical methodologies pertinent to re-interpreting, producing, distributing, and repatriating visual records of South Asian history. Moreover, the conference will create a strategically innovative research and practice-based framework for postgraduate history students interested in experimenting with and advancing new cross-methodological approaches. During a pre-conference workshop dedicated to ‘Writing South Asian history with visual research methods’ ten postgraduate history students will work with unique visual records selected from the collections held by the CSAS.

Keynote addresses will be delivered by Prof. David MacDougall (Australian National University) and by Prof. Elizabeth Edwards (Vice-President of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Director of Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University). Prof. Alan Macfarlane (University of Cambridge) will present a special contribution. Other invited speakers include Prof. Christiane Brosius (Heidelberg University), Prof. Malavika Karlekar (Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi), Dr Lotte Hoek (University of Edinburgh), Dr Zoe Headley (Institut Français de Pondichery), Dr Kriti Kapila (King's College London), Dr Vron Ware (Open University) and Prof. Mandy Rose (UWE).

The conference will host a special session titled ‘Tamil Societies and Visibility' co-funded by the Fondation Maison Science de l’Homme, Paris, and the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge. Speakers include Dr Sujit Sivasundaram, Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes, and Dr Remo Reginold.
 Also, CRASSH Digital Humanities network will participate in designing and developing the pre-conference postgraduate student workshop with a view to expand and integrate similar practice-based learning strategies within digital humanities programs.

The conference invites contributions addressing the following topics:


     Perspective on visual anthropology and South Asian history

     The use of visual records in producing new histories of South Asian identities
     Digital anthropology and representation of contemporary South Asian societies
     Practice-based research methods combining visual and historical studies relevant to South Asia


The organisers invite proposals for papers or presentations of 20 minutes in length. Abstracts of 300 words and an author biography (incl. institutional affiliation) should be submitted via email to vacsah.conf.2014@gmail.com by 3 January 2014. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 20 January 2014.
Any questions and concerns can be directed to Dr Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes at vacsah.conf.2014@gmail.com 

Documenting a frontier: spectacular hand-painted fabric maps of Burma

Cambridge University Library welcomes you to 'Documenting a frontier' - an opporturtunity to view some spectacular manuscript maps of Burma dating from the 1860s, alongside rare early photographs of the region from the Royal Commonwealth Society's collection.

 

 

Map of Maingnyaung region (Cambridge University Library, MS.Plans.R.C.1)

The event forms part of the University of Cambridge's Festival of Ideas (event 66) and takes place on Saturday afternoon, 26th October 2013 in the Map Room, Cambridge University Library. Ticketed entry is at three times: 1:30pm - 2:15pm, 2:30pm - 3:15pm and 3:30pm - 4:15pm.

Please book your place online at: www.cam.ac.uk/festival-of-ideas or by phoning: 01223 766766 (lines open Monday-Friday , 10am - 4.30pm)

Event URL:  http://www.cam.ac.uk/festival-of-ideas/events-and-booking/documenting-a-frontier
For more information about the event, please email: rcs@lib.cam.ac.uk or phone: 01223 333146

Call for Research Assistance on Sikh Turbans - The Horniman Museum London

The Horniman Museum is looking for research assistance for their upcoming project 'The Sikh Turban: Exploring an Icon of a Migratory Peoples' Identity. This falls within the Horniman's review of its anthropology collections Collections People Stories: Anthropology Reconsidered http://www.horniman.ac.uk/about/collections-people-stories which, working with communities and researchers, aims to uncover the range, scale and importance of their collections.

The aim of the Sikh & Turban project is to display an exhibition from the Horniman's collections in 2014, which will explore the turban in the context of Sikh global migration. The exhibits will demonstrate - the physical variations of turbans across the globe - consider the role of the turban in Sikh identity in relation to other head coverings such as the mitre in Europe during the Middle Ages - and examine the turban in the context of Sikh relations with Britain.

If you would be interested in helping with any aspect of the research or curating of this exhibition then please get in touch with the primary researchers Gorby Jandu gorby.jandu@gmail.com and Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp JZetterstrom-Sharp@horniman.ac.uk. More information about the Horniman museum collections can be found on their website www.horniman.ac.uk

.

 

Southern Indian Material at the Henry Martyn Centre, Westminster College

A guest post by Lucy Hughes, Archivist of the Henry Martyn Centre in Cambridge.

 Readers of the SAALG blog may be interested to learn about the collection of material relating to missionary work in Southern India which is held at the Henry Martyn Centre, Westminster College. The items in this miscellaneous collection of books, articles and pamphlets were connected with the Reverend R. B. Budgett and range in date from 1913 to 1958.

The ‘Indian Liturgy’ (shown in the scanned image) is an abridged edition, revised in 1942, of the original order for the administration of holy communion sanctioned in 1922 by the Episcopal Synod of India for experimental use in the diocese of Bombay. In 1933 the order was given authorisation for use in any diocese of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon. It is 2/4 in the South India collection. Within the same collection is to be found a folder of items relating to the Dornakal diocese. This folder includes a pamphlet entitled ‘Jungle Wanderings in the Diocese of Dornakal’ by Captain Hayne, undated (South India 3/7). Printed by the Church Army Press in Oxford, it is 12 pages long and contains 7 photographs of village life accompanying the detailed descriptions of life in this remote rural district, and the gradual infiltration of Christianity into the community.

Another item of particular interest is a note relating to a book entitled Andhra Christian Lyrics (South India 4/1). Andhra Christian Lyrics is an anthology published in Madras, 1937, of Christian verses popular in the Andhra region: they are printed in Hindi. According to a note (South India 2/8) found in the same collection, number 77 is the most precious of the lyrics in the volume. A story about its composition is recited in the note:

‘It is on God’s love and was composed when the author Gollapalli Nathaniel was bound in stocks by the enemies of the Christian religion. Gollapalli Nathaniel was a voluntary Evangelist. He learnt to read and write only after he was baptised with his wife in 1862. Constrained by the love of God he went about preaching the Gospel in the villages. In one of his preaching tours of 1869 the high caste Hindus of Nuramanda objected to his preaching in their streets, and had him put in stocks. Some women who took pity on him begged the Hindus in vain to give him food that night. In spite of pain all over the body Nathaniel composed this lyric on God’s love and sang it to the people who came to see him the next morning … The lyric is prescribed as the first lesson to all people preparing for baptism. It is taught to them with full explanation from the Bible. It is sung by Christians of all denominations in Andhra desa and almost all six lakhs of Christians in the Telugu area know it by heart. During Hindu festival times the lyric is printed on a separate handbill and is distributed to all non-Christians.’

Researching developing cities

Researchers interested in issues relating to the growth of cities in south and south-east Asia may be interested in a new research group, recently established at the University of Cambridge, Cities South of Cancer (CSC).  The group is currently studying four cities: Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cali (Colombia), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Khulna (Bangladesh).

Researchers explore issues to do with globalisation and architecture, poverty and urban informality, urban growth and governance, amongst other major themes. Research extends across disciplinary boundaries constantly inviting collaborations with sociologists, anthropologists, cultural theorists, urban planners, historians, lawyers and engineers. CSC emerges as a platform for interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration whose aim is to develop new forms of urban practice in the developing world. Group members may be contacted at citiessouthofcancer@aha.cam.ac.uk

Not Orville and Wilbur

MS Add.1688, f. 19v (detail). Representation of the goddess Mayūrī from an 11th-century manuscript of the Pañcarakṣā, bought by Daniel Wright in 1873-6.

The manuscript has been catalogued and digitised for the Sanskrit Manuscripts Project and is available at http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01688/ 

In the world in general mention of the Wright Brothers brings to mind the pioneers of controlled powered manned flight, Orville and Wilbur Wright. In the Sanskrit world, the Wright Brothers suggest instead the beginnings of one of the most important Sanskrit manuscript collections in the world.

Cambridge University Library’s South Asian collections grew in the 1870s when one brother Daniel Wright, surgeon to the British Residency at Kathmandu, Nepal from 1866 to 1876, collected a large number of Sanskrit manuscripts on the suggestion of his brother in Cambridge, William Wright, Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic from 1870. Their father had worked for the East India Company and William was born in Nepal. William Wright donated many Islamic manuscripts to the Library and arranged the purchase of a significant Syriac collection.

The first Sanskrit manuscripts were commissioned copies, transcripts of early manuscripts. It was only as the project progressed that it became clear that buying manuscripts of an early date that would be taken out of use when modern copies were made was the way forward. Many purchases were made through Pandit Gunanand of the Residency, with whom Daniel Wright wrote a history of Nepal (Cambridge, 1877).

We have a price list in Daniel Wright’s hand (classmark ULIB 7/1/4) showing that MS Add. 1585–1677 were purchased for £429/11/-. The famous illustrated Perfection of Wisdom (MS Add. 1643) dated 1015 cost £25! The same list shows that Daniel Wright was also sending unbound Tibetan block-printed books and Tibetan manuscripts.

South Asian manuscripts in Cambridge University Library comprise more than one thousand documents in Sanskrit and other South Asian languages, written in various scripts on different materials, such as birch-bark, palm-leaf and paper. Many have wooden covers, some lavishly illustrated. On some there are traces of offerings made in religious ceremonies: rice, sandalwood dust and red and yellow powders. The Buddhist manuscripts were catalogued by Cecil Bendall in the late 19th century (Cambridge, 1883). What Daniel Wright collected is much wider than the Buddhist core of the collection and includes works of great rarity in different genres and on a host of subjects. Among them are some of the oldest extant manuscripts from South Asia, dating from the last centuries of the first millennium CE, collected in Nepal, the only region of the Indian subcontinent where the climate allows their survival for more than a few centuries.

This collection is now being worked on by the Sanskrit Manuscripts Project which began in November 2011, funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant. The manuscripts will be catalogued and many will be digitised. Results will be collected in a multimedia archive and the records will be searchable online through the Library’s online digital library: http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/. Many are already available.

This in turn is sparking a collaborative effort with Sanskritists in the UK and abroad. Research findings will be presented through academic journals and other publications, as well as in international workshops focusing on some of the religious and intellectual traditions that have played a key role in South Asian civilisation.

For more information, see the Sanskrit Manuscripts Project webpage, which has details of current work and associated events.

Craig Jamieson
South Asian, Tibetan and Southeast Asian Department, Cambridge University Library
Email: southasian@lib.cam.ac.uk
 

Pamphlets from the former India Office Library recently added to the British Library's Online Catalogue

The British library has recently added catalogue records for a collection of about 540 pamphlets, received in the former India Office Library during the 1920s and 1930s. Catherine Pickett has written a piece for the Electronic British Library Journal which reveals that the majority of the pamphlets are South Asian imprints, some of which are very rare. For the full text of the article follow the below link

http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2012articles/article12.html

British Library European Studies Blog - Multiculturalism in 18th Century Portuguese India?

Readers of the SAALG blog may also be interested in a post recently added to the British Library European Studies Blog by Barry Taylor, Curator of Hispanic Studies. He discusses a Portuguese pamphlet in the British Library which reported the 'happy news of the conversion of a yogi, who in the religious house of Bom Jesus in Goa received holy baptism on 8 September 1735' (Lisboa Occidental: na Officina Joaquiniana da Musica, 1737) BL shelfmark: RB.23.a.21030.

For the full post including an image follow the link below:

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/european/2013/07/multiculturalism-in-18th-century-portuguese-india.html