The intellectual and religious traditions of South Asia revealed in Cambridge University’s Sanskrit manuscripts Project
The inner front cover of Add. 1643, a beautifully and copiously illuminated Aṣṭasahāsrikā Prajñāparamitā, dated 1015, probably the oldest illuminated manuscript from South Asia.
In late 2011 Cambridge University Library began its AHRC funded project to survey, catalogue and digitize its collection of Sanskrit manuscripts. Since then 1500 manuscripts have been catalogued, including 150 in great detail (most of which are illuminated). Significant items in the collection have been digitized and are available via the University’s digital library.
Amongst the manuscripts are rare items on a wide range of subjects including, religion, philosophy, grammar, law, poetry and astronomy. The collection includes some of the oldest extant manuscripts from South Asia, which were collected in Nepal and date from the last centuries of the first millennium C.E.
The project website includes much more information as well as news, links to the digitized manuscripts and details of lectures and workshops http://sanskrit.lib.cam.ac.uk/
Digitized manuscripts can also be searched or browsed via the Cambridge Digital Library http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/