OU’s rare manuscripts revealed
Osmania University has a collection of rare ancient manuscripts and books, among them two manuscripts of the epic Mahabharata in Telugu on palm leaves, and the Bhagavata, which promotes the devotion of Krishna, integrating themes of the Advaita (monism) philosophy of Adi Shankara.
They are a part of the collection of the main library of the university, which was established in 1918, the same time as the university itself. The library was later shifted to the present building, which was inaugurated by then President Dr S. Radhakrishnan on August 3, 1963.
The Mahabharata manuscripts are of different sizes: one is 18 inches x 6 inches and the other, 20 inches x 10.1/4 inches.
One of the manuscripts has almost the whole text of the Mahabharata with Nilakantha’s commentary. Nilakantha Cathurdhara was a scholar who lived in Varanasi in the latter half of the 17th century and was famous for his commentaries on the Mahabharata.
Each page of the manuscript has a distinctive gold and silver border interspersed with floral designs and contains miniature paintings of the characters mentioned in the text on that particular age.
The manuscript contains two dates, one in the beginning — Saka 1722 (1800 AD) and the other at the end — Saka 1751 (1829 AD), which suggests that it took 29 years for the manuscript to be copied and illustrated!
The second manuscript does not cover the whole text, but there is one bundle of Bhishma Parva, which requires special mention. It contains the Bhagavad Gita with three commentaries, the text occupying the middle and the three commentaries in the upper and lower portions, ornamented with floral borders.
There are miniature paintings of Krishna and Arjuna on each page of this manuscript. Though the manuscript is over 150 years old, the colours are fresh.
A note in the manuscript states that it was copied at Bhagyanagar (Hyderabad) on the banks of the Muchkunda (Musi).
The Bhagavata manuscript in Sanskrit has an illustrated scroll of the complete text of the 12 Skandhas of Srimad Bhagavata. The scroll is four inches wide and 64 feet long.
It’s a unique manuscript of the Dasama Skanda of Bhagavatha and is profusely illustrated with commentary of Sridhara Swami.