On reading the article of Nahush Bhat, who is currently working with the University library in the US, helping them catalogue over a hundred thousand books of all shapes and sizes, some dating back almost 60 years, I was reminded of Rudrapatna Shamasastry (1868-1944), a Sanskrit scholar and librarian at the Oriental Research Institute (ORI), Mysore.

The ORI, set up in 1891, housed thousands of Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts. Shamasastry examined these fragile manuscripts daily, to determine their contents and catalogue them. In 1905, he discovered the Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy among a heap of manuscripts. He transcribed, edited and published the Sanskrit edition in 1909 and also proceeded to translate it into English, publishing it in 1915.

This discovery, “an epoch-making event in the history of the study of ancient Indian polity,” brought fame to the Institute some 100 years ago. Until it was identified from a manuscript by Shamashastry, Chanakya’s opus was known only from references. Will our engineering graduate-cum-librarian-in-the-making bring fame to his alma mater and to Namma Mysuru?

—KBG

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Friday – April 10th, 2015