This Issue of my Newsletter is dedicated to Prof. Ashok Aklujkar, Vancouver, Canada who was the Highest Donor of my Last Fund Raiser that helped me tremendously. Unfortunate though, I wouldn’t have the honor of meeting him at the World Sanskrit Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia Prof’s City of Residence as planned because not just that the Canadian Visa Process is time consuming, the financial drain I am not currently in the position to handle.
My Fourth Fundraiser I am giving up on ketto as the refund is not only time consuming, there are so many hidden fees in the process I end up loosing substantial money to bureaucracy.
So I will keep it simple with the more economical Paypal Donation Link:
Please consider a donation if you have dispensable income and a Love of Books and there permanent storage and availability.
Manuscripts at Both Almira 1 and 2 (Jammu) Completed
My original almira counts has been descending but after Almira 20, I decided to switch to Almira 1 and 2 directly owing to more interesting subjects like Grammar and Literature.
Total 510 Items were digitized.
Almira 1 and Shelf-1 of Almira 2 represented Sankrit Vyakarana(Grammar) wholly.
Almira 2 consists of Literature, Drama, Poetry, Rhetorics/Figures( Alankar Shastra ) and Lexicography
All 510 Items are viewable below:
Manuscripts Digitized for British Library:
Bulkier Manuscripts that cannot be scanned by our Regular Scanner, we use our DSLR Camera that is provided by a generous grant from the Endangered Archives, British Library.
These Large Size A-3+ Tomes can be viewed below:
Rare Collection of Books from Dev Prayag, Uttarakhand
Thanks once again to Vinod Razdan Sahib, he brought to our attention a very Old Library in Devprayag, Uttarakahand with over 3000 Manuscripts and countless Books ( > 25K Items ) that was curated over a lifetime by its founder Late Shri Chakradhar Joshi a man devoted to Astrology and Astronomical Studies and is better known for the Nakshatra Vedh Shala Astronomical Observatory in Dev prayag.
He had travelled the length and breath of India to collect Jyotish related materials and the Collection is witness to his passion and energy.
The 2 Surviving Sons Shri Prabhakar Joshi and Shri Bhaskar Joshi have most kindly allowed us to scan any Printed Book we like – we have petitioned to allow us to scan there manuscripts but at this stage the Joshi Brothers are not willing which we respect completely.
92 Items digitized so far are viewable here:
Catalogs of the Library’s Manuscript Collection can be viewed below:
Hand Written Register of there Books Collection can be see below:
This 1815 yes 1815 !!! Book published from Fort Willaims College Sishupal Vadha is now on record our Oldest Printed Book that have digitized. The last record that we held was the Keilhorn Edition of Mahabhashya of 1856.
This other Text Nalodaya from Fort William College is possibly similarly Old except that no year is mentioned:
https://archive.org/details/NalodayaInFourVolumesWithSubodhiniByKalidasFortWilliamCollege
The Life of the Founder and his Immense Contribution can be read about in the following Smirit Granth:
24 Texts out of 92 are 19th Century !!!
I encourage readers to go through the book list and send us wish-lists so that important works are identified and digitized early.
This is a Manuscript:
A Rare Devanagari Manuscript in the Hand Writing of Swami Vidyadhar – Disciple Swami Rama(Fatehkadal) from Jammu. Courtest Shri P.R. Raina:
Thanks to eGangotri Trust Member and Chandigarh Coordinator, Shri Vinod Razdan Sahib, who told us about Jammu Based Writer Shri P.R. Raina who was given temporary custody of 3 very important and supremely rare documents, we have been able to digitize these and present them to the Lovers of Learning:
This first is in Sw. Vidyadhar’s Handwriting has a Stuti of Shaivaharya Swami Ram, a Gauri Stuti/Dashak and a Maha Kalika Stuti:
This Second is a Printed Publication of the above and other Rare Stotras possibly only in circulation in Kashmir:
Also notable is the Name and address of the Publishing Institution – surely defunct by now:
Shiava Ashram, Kalyan Kendra Karan Nagar Srinagar
This last is a Sharada Manuscript with Bhavani Sahasranama and some other Texts:
Shri Svadhyaya Magazines of Swami Amrit Vagbhavacharya :
Readers of our Past editions will be familiar with our pursuit of Swami Amrit Vagbhav’s Works – the Channelist and Mystic and Guru of Ballajin Nath Pandit and grand-Guru by that route of my good friend Victoria the Russian Indologist.
We think we have almost everything of Swamiji – except the Tri-Quarterly that Swamiji was publishing from Solan under the patronage of the Maharaja of Baghat, HP – the Sri Svadhayaya. The first Issue was published in 1942 ( 1998 V.E). I came to know of there existence through the writings of B.N. Panditji and they had been elusive all these years
Thanks profusely to the large heartedness of his Disciple Dharmendra Mishra-ji, Bharatpur who preserved most of the Issues over its 16 years of publication, and then just handed us without any monetary expectation or otherwise.
This is the First Edition of Sri Svadhyaya:
All Other Issues can be seen below:
Initially I had wrongly imagined, Sri Svadhyaya to be a exclusive Kashmir Shaivite Magazine and I also wanted to give it recognition as the predecessor of the “Kashmir Shaiva Research Papers” in being the first magazine devoted to this Subject but Sri Svadhyaya is first a Jyotish Magazine and Swamiji is actually mentioned only as the Founder and Shri Har Dev Trivediji ( Jyotish Expert ) is the editor – whose son and family I had the good fortune to meet personally at there residence in Solan earlier this year. But many good articles on Kashmir Shaivism and writings of both Swamiji and Ballajin Nath Pandit can be found here. After Swamiji abandoned Sri Svadhyaya, Trivedijis family continued with another magazine called Jyotishmati which is still in publication.
Thanks to Dharmendra Mishraji once again, his cousin Phanindra Mishraji who first called me to say that 2-3 volumes of that magazine had surfaced on cleaning.
I had only gone to Bharatpur to pick these 2-3 Volumes when we thought despite our last unsuccessful trip to Dharmendraji and denials, it would be harmless to just give a blind shot with miraculous results.
An Unpublished Hindi Tika on Ishvar Pratyabhijna by Swami Lakshman Joo and a Hand Written Register of his Disciple Rameshwar Jha, Sharada Text of Ishvar Pratyabhijna Vivritti and Other Books – courtesy the Collection of Late Samvit Prakash Dhar Sahib and Ishwar Ashram Trust
I pay homage to Late Samvit Prakash Dhar Sahib who was the only Living Disciple of High Mystical Attainments of Swami Lakshman Joo that I had the fortune to meet – thanks to Larry Small of Bangkok who did the first introductions.
Dhar Sahib showered me with love and affection and introduced me to Swami Lakkshman of the Udasin Sect in Rishikesh. It was Dhar Sahib who encouraged me to go to Srinagar for the First Time to Swamijis Ashram. After his passing away his family donated there books to Ishwar Ashram Trust, New Delhi and we digitized them some of them very important works.
All of Late Samvit Dhar Sahib’s Books are viewable below:
This is a Photocopy of Swamiji’s Hindi Tika on Ishvar Pratyabhijna:
Guruji Navjivan Rastogi verified that he has not known any such text.
This is the Ishvar Pratyabhijna Vivritti in Sharada in impressive hand-writing
100 Over Texts at Ishwar Ashram that we had missed before were also digitized:
Some important ones were:
Few Pages of Sharada Scribblings:
A Photocopy of a Register of Acharya Rameshwar Jha’s Sanskrit Writings !
Bhagvata Gita in Urdu by Pitambar Nath Tikku:
Many Texts of KSTS etc have been scanned only because they had profuse hand written notes in Urdu, English and Hindi and we wanted to preserve the notes as some kind of a reading that could be of potential worth.
Profuse thanks to the Munshi Brothers ( Dr. Anusheel and Devender ) that made this possible.
Dont want to fail to note that many texts have hand-written notes of Swamiji and this one dedicated to Dhar Sahib is very cute as it is a Yamaka on Dhar Sahib’s Given Name Samvit :
श्री कलिका भगवत्याः प्रसादेन संवित्प्रकाशस्य संवित्समुल्लसतु तराम्
इति प्रार्थना ईश्वरपर्वत निवासिनो राजानक लक्ष्मणस्य राज राजेश्वरी स्वीकरोतु
My Next Digitization will be of Documents in the Hand Writtings of Swami Lakshman Joo. May Guru Maharaj make this Possible.
8 Sharada Manuscripts of Shri Puneet
Thanks to Shri Sunil Raina ji for his most kind efforts of reaching out to Puneet Jyotishiji in Jammu. We have 8 Sharada manuscripts from the first lot that we have very kindly received. Puneet Jyotishi is the surviving son of Manmojan Jyotishi one of two families that are the originators of the Vijayeshwar Panchang Almanac
Books from Kashmir Research Institute
176 Texts from Kashmir Research Institutue have been digitized.
Noteworthy are:
Musicological Text Unidentifiable Title or Author Name
Haft Paijkar of Nizami
https://archive.org/details/KRI552HaftPaikarNizamiMissingPg28297071202203410MunshiNavalKishorePress
Persian Ramayan
https://archive.org/details/KRI567FarsiRamayan1921UrduPg1812728.106107MissingMunshiMuhammadPress
Bostan in Udu
https://archive.org/details/KRI565BostanUrdu
Ramayan Nazam Khoshtar
https://archive.org/details/KRI626RamayanNazamKhoshtarHarafBaharMatalikTulsiKritNavalKishorePress
1872 KailashMarg
Urdu Grammar
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