the tanjore ‘aesop’ in the context of early marathi printing

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The Tanjore 'Aesop' in the Context of Early Marathi Printing By GRAHAM SHAW A COPY of a Marathi translation ofAesop's fables, printed in Tanjore at the beginning of the nineteenth century and preserved in the collection of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books of the British Library [14139^.7], throws fresh light upon an interesting episode in the history of Marathi printing. Though the existence of this copy was noted by A. K. Priolkar, 1 it has not before been described in detail or placed in its proper context. It was presented by the Raja of Tanjore himself in 1817 to Sir Alexander Johnston (1775-1849), ChiefJustice of Ceylon and a founder member of the Royal Asiatic Society, who in turn presented it to the then Library of the British Museum in July 1821. Furthermore, bound in with this copy is a handwritten note, perhaps in Sir Alexander's own hand, which supplies details of the establishment of the Tanjore press. 2 Hitherto, the only information available was that given in a brief account 3 by A. C. Burnell, the Sanskrit scholar who spent several periods of time at Tanjore during the 1870s compiling A classified index to the Sanskrit Mss. in the palace at Tanjore (published London 1880). Marathi, the language of the Marathas 4 whose homeland is the modern state of Maharastra in Western India, was one of the few Indo-Aryan ver- naculars of Northern and Central India (Bengali was another) to be at all affected as regards printing by the Portuguese presence in the subcontinent. A whole series of Christian works in Marathi came off the presses at Goa in the seventeenth century, the earliest of which there is a copy extant being the Doutrina Christam of the English Jesuit Thomas Stephens dated 1622. 5 It must be remembered, however, that all these Goan imprints used Romani- zation throughout. There is so far no hard evidence, though the assertion has been made, 6 that the Portuguese experimented at casting founts of type in either of the Indian scripts commonly used for writing Marathi-Devanagari (also known in Marathi as Balabodha) or the more cursive Modi. 7 1 The printing press in India, its beginnings and early development, Bombay, 1958, p. 46. 1 The British Library is fortunate enough to possess another copy of the same edition [14.139.g-7*] which formerly belonged to the Foreign Office Library and which has the complete text but lacks the two woodcuts at the beginning—see below. 3 An early Sanskrit press as yet unnoticed by bibliographers, in Tne Indian Antiquary, 1872, L193-4. 4 As a power they rose to prominence under Sivajl in the mid-seventeenth century and extended their conquests throughout the eighteenth century until defeated by the British in three wars 1775-1818. 5 For details see C. R. Boxer, A tentative check-list of Indo-Portuguese imprints, 15^6-1674 (Separata do Bolctim do Institute Vasco da Gama, No. 73, 1956). 6 For instance by G. Schurhammer as quoted in Priolkar, p.12 ? See G. A. Grierson, Linguistic survey of India, vii, Specimens of the Marafhi language, Calcutta, 1905, PP- at Vanderbilt University on May 2, 2014 http://library.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from

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Page 1: The Tanjore ‘Aesop’ in the Context of Early Marathi Printing

The Tanjore 'Aesop' in the Context ofEarly Marathi Printing

By GRAHAM SHAW

ACOPY of a Marathi translation ofAesop's fables, printed in Tanjore at thebeginning of the nineteenth century and preserved in the collection ofthe Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books of the

British Library [14139^.7], throws fresh light upon an interesting episode inthe history of Marathi printing. Though the existence of this copy was notedby A. K. Priolkar,1 it has not before been described in detail or placed in itsproper context. It was presented by the Raja of Tanjore himself in 1817 toSir Alexander Johnston (1775-1849), Chief Justice of Ceylon and a foundermember of the Royal Asiatic Society, who in turn presented it to the thenLibrary of the British Museum in July 1821. Furthermore, bound in withthis copy is a handwritten note, perhaps in Sir Alexander's own hand, whichsupplies details of the establishment of the Tanjore press.2 Hitherto, the onlyinformation available was that given in a brief account3 by A. C. Burnell,the Sanskrit scholar who spent several periods of time at Tanjore during the1870s compiling A classified index to the Sanskrit Mss. in the palace at Tanjore(published London 1880).

Marathi, the language of the Marathas4 whose homeland is the modernstate of Maharastra in Western India, was one of the few Indo-Aryan ver-naculars of Northern and Central India (Bengali was another) to be at allaffected as regards printing by the Portuguese presence in the subcontinent.A whole series of Christian works in Marathi came off the presses at Goa inthe seventeenth century, the earliest of which there is a copy extant being theDoutrina Christam of the English Jesuit Thomas Stephens dated 1622.5 Itmust be remembered, however, that all these Goan imprints used Romani-zation throughout. There is so far no hard evidence, though the assertionhas been made,6 that the Portuguese experimented at casting founts of typein either of the Indian scripts commonly used for writing Marathi-Devanagari(also known in Marathi as Balabodha) or the more cursive Modi.7

1 The printing press in India, its beginnings and early development, Bombay, 1958, p. 46.1 The British Library is fortunate enough to possess another copy of the same edition

[14.139.g-7*] which formerly belonged to the Foreign Office Library and which has the completetext but lacks the two woodcuts at the beginning—see below.

3 An early Sanskrit press as yet unnoticed by bibliographers, in Tne Indian Antiquary, 1872, L193-4.4 As a power they rose to prominence under Sivajl in the mid-seventeenth century and

extended their conquests throughout the eighteenth century until defeated by the British inthree wars 1775-1818.

5 For details see C. R. Boxer, A tentative check-list of Indo-Portuguese imprints, 15^6-1674(Separata do Bolctim do Institute Vasco da Gama, No. 73, 1956).

6 For instance by G. Schurhammer as quoted in Priolkar, p.12? See G. A. Grierson, Linguistic survey of India, vii, Specimens of the Marafhi language, Calcutta,

1905, PP-

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208 The Tanjore 'Aesop' in the Context ofDespite their frequent contact with the Portuguese, the Marathas do not

appear to have adopted the art of printing for their own use. It is notpossible, therefore, to trace any further development in the history ofMarathi printing until the very earliest years of the nineteenth century,which may justly be termed 'the Serampore period'.8 Marathi was the firstlanguage, after Bengali of course, in which the Serampore missionariesprinted a version of the New Testament. This was a small trial edition ofjust 465 copies, quarto, comprising St. Matthew's Gospel only, printedin Devanagari characters in 1805.9 In the same year Dr. William Carey'sA grammar of the Mahratta language was also printed, again in Devanagaricharacters for the reason stated in the preface: 'types of the Moorh [Le.Modi] character not having yet been cast in Bengal'. Soon afterwards,however, in 1806 or 1807, a fount of Modi type, 'moderate in size, distinctand beautiful',10 was successfully cast. Subsequently all Serampore Marathiworks1 J were printed in this script as it was known to be more widely readand understood by the majority of people, being the normal script forbusiness dealings and private correspondence, than Devanagari which tendedto be regarded as the preserve of the Brahmin castes.

In the case of many of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars, the Serampore Mission'spromotion of printing appears as a remarkable but rather isolated period ofactivity. For Marathi, fortunately, there is evidence of contemporaneousdevelopments. Apart from the beginnings of printing in Bombay, at leastone other press in an unexpected quarter was producing works in Marathi atthe same time. Curiously enough, this press was not situated in Maharastrabut in South India, deep in Tamil Nadu, over two hundred miles beyondMadras, at Tanjore (Thanjavur) on the river Cauvery, best known perhapsfor one of the finest manuscript libraries in the whole of India.12 Tanjorehad been the capital of the Cholas, then of the Nayaks, but in 1674 it wasconquered by the Maradias under Venkaji, brother of the famous Sivaji, whofounded the line of Tanjore Rajas.13 In 1778 a mission station was established

8 Apart from. Serampore, Maratfai printing of sorts had also begun in Bombay where thefirst Marathi advertisement—in Modi script—appeared in the Bombay courier for 17 July 1802.See PriolVar, p. 75.

9 Memoir relative to the translations of the sacred scriptures, Serampore, 1808, p.9. A copy of thisrare edition is preserved in the library of Serampore College itself. See K. S. Diehl, Early Indianimprints. New York and London, 1964, pp. 411-12, item 963.

10 Memoir relative to . . . Scriptures, p. 19.11 Carey's A dictionary oj'the Mahratta language 1810; The new testament 1811; The old testament

in the usual four volumes 1813-19; Singhasan Battisi 1814; Hitopade'sa 1815; RSja PratapSditydcemCaritrai8i$;RaghujiBhonsalyaciVamlavalii8iS,etc. See S. A. Givaskar, MarSfhiDolSmumtem,and ed., Bombay, 1961. It should be said by way of qualification that two other Seramporeworks were printed in Devanagari characters—in the Konkani or 'Kunkuna' dialect of Marathi:T7K new testament 1818; The pentateuch 1821. See T. H. Darlow and H. P. Moule, Historicalcatalogue of the printed editions of holy scripture in the library of the British and Foreign Bible Society,London, 1903, p. 1087.

" For the report of a recent visit see P. A. Khoroche, Impressions of the Sarasvati MahalLibrary, Tanjore, in IAVRI Bulletin, No . 1, 1975, pp. 3-4.

11 For their history see C. K. Srinivasan, Maratha rule in the Camatic, Annamalainagar, 1945;W . Hickey, The Tanjore Mahratta Principality in Southern India, Madras, 1873; K. R. Subo-

i The Maratha Rajas of Tanjore, Madras, 1928.

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at Tanjore with the permission of the Raja Tulaji by the Revd. ChristianFriedrich Schwartz, a Prussian working for both the Danish MissionarySociety and the London-based Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.14

In 1787, on his deathbed, the Raja adopted one Sarabhojl (Serfoji)15 as hisheir and entrusted him to Schwartz. Sarabhoji, however, was not acceptedas Raja by the British immediately and did not ascend the throne until 1798,the very year that Schwartz died. Though a great linguist, Schwartz doesnot seem to have been personally interested in translation and printing, buthe did apparently translate into Marathi for Raja Tulaji 'a dialogue between aChristian and a heathen' which he had originally composed in Tamil.16

From his guardian and tutor, the young Sarabhojl, who incidentally neverembraced Christianity, acquired a taste for European literature and science.In the room adjoining his library, for instance, ne is said to have kept anair-pump, an 'electrifying machine', an ivory skeleton, astronomical instru-ments and a collection of books on medicine.17 Sometime soon after hisaccession,'almost certainly during the year 1805,l8 Sarabhojl installed in theroyal palace his prize possession—the earliest known printing press inTanjore. It is remarkable to note that Schwartz and his immediate successorsdid not follow the example of their Tranquebar colleagues near by andestablish their own mission press. Dr. Cbudius Buchanan, a Chaplain to thePresidency of Bengal and Vice-Provost of Fort William College, who passedthrough Tanjore in September 1806, observed: 'They [i.e. the Tanjoremissionaries] lamented much that they were destitute of the aid of a printing-press . . . The Brahmins in Tanjore have procured a press, which theydedicate . . . to the glory of their gods; but their missionaries, who firstintroduced the civilization of Christianity at the Tanjore capital, are stillwithout one'.19 Neither Pierre Deschamps20 nor Dennis E. Rhodes21

acknowledge the existence of Sarabhoji's press, both being of the opinionthat the first press in Tanjore was founded by the British and Foreign BibleSociety, perhaps as early as 1808.22 Their omission is all the more surprisingsince Sarabhoji's press is recorded in the nineteenth-century works ofH. A. Cotton23 and H. Ternaux-Compans.24 According to A. C. Burnell,Sarabhoji's object was 'to print the books required tor the elementary

»• The best available account of his life is contained in H. Pearson, Memoirs of the life andcorrespondence of the Reverend Christian Frederick Swartz, i vols., 1834.

•s This ii Sarabhojl II of Tanjore, Sarabhoji I having reigned from 171a to 1728.16 Pearson, L 319-20." T. Robinson, The last days of Bishop Heber, Madras, 1819, p. 166.18 George Annesley, Viscount Valentia, visited Tanjore in January 1804 but, though in

Voyages and travels to India, Ceylon, The Red Sea, 1809, L 3 51-64, he gives a detailed descriptionof the palace, he nowhere mentions the press which Sarabhojl would no doubt have been sureto show him.

•• W . H. Foy, ed., Buchanan's Christian Researches in India, 1858, pp. 229-30.™> L'imprimerie hors VEurope, Nouvelle Edition Revue, Paris, 1964 reprint, p. 175.21 The spread of printing, India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma and Thailand, Amsterdam, 1969, p. 60.*» This B.F.B.S. press must be the one mentioned in a letter of Christopher Horst, a young

Tanjore missionary, quoted in Pearson, ii. 452.23 A typographical gazetteer, 2nd eda., Oxford, 1831, pp. 277-8.** Notice sur Its imprimeries qui existent ou out existi hart de VEurope, Paris, 1842, p. 43.

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210 The Tanjore 'Aesop' in the Context ofSanskrit and Maratha schools he had established in the Tanjor district',25 andthe choice of works printed seems to bear this out in part at least. As thehandwritten note in the copy of Aesop s fables presented to the British libraryby Sir Alexander Johnston explains, Sarabhoji 'procured a printing pressfrom England . . . and had a great many of the Brahmins who held appoint-ments about his person instructed in printing with Mahratta and Sanscripttypes. He also had many of them instructed in the art of manufacturingpaper and held out the greatest encouragement to all persons filling highsituations in his government who should become acquainted with theEnglish language and should make translations of English works of meritinto the Mahratta and Sanscript languages'. The note omits to mention whogave the initial instruction in printing and papermaking—someone whoarrived with the press from England? A missionary from Tranquebar orSerampore? A printer from Madras or Bombay? Sarabhoji's aim of having aseries of translations made of English 'classics' into Marathi and Sanskritseems to have begun and ended with Aesop's fables since all the other knownproducts of the press are editions of original Sanskrit and Marathi works. Asfar as can be ascertained, only Devanagari types were used for the printingof Marathi works at Tanjore, though the note's differentiation between'Mahratta' and 'Sanscript' types would appear to suggest that both Modi andDevanagari were employed. As A. K. Priolkar states,26 though withoutrevealing his evidence for it, the types used in Sarabhoji's press were cast bythe famous Sir Charles Wilkins himself, being identical with those used forprinting his Agramtnar of the Sanskrita language in 1808.27 In course of time,the superintendent of the palace printing office, styled in Sanskrit navavid-yakalanidhi 'the store of new [nine?] arts and sciences', was a Brahmincalled Kuppa Bhatta.28

According again to the handwritten note, the very first book to beproduced by Sarabhoji's press was none other than the Balabodhamuktdvali,the Marathi version of Aesop's fables. This work is surprisingly not men-tioned in S. A. Gavaskar's bibliography of early Marathi printed booksfrom 1805 to 186729 and it is not listed in either of the admittedly incompletecatalogues of the holdings of Marathi printed books in the Sarasvati MahalLibrary itself.30 It is, however, briefly recorded in S\ G. Date's mammoth

25 Classified index to . . . Sanskrit Mss, p . 194. ** Priolkar, p . 46.27 Specimens of Wilkin's Devanagari types are reproduced in J. Johnson, Typographic ii

(1824), 388-91. Bumell, p . 194, suggested the fount of type was procured 'probably fromMadras'.

28 He is named in the colophons of two Sanskrit works printed at the press: the Amarakoiaof 1807 ( . . . Kuppakhya Bhaffo varne yantre hi varnSn Sarabhanarapater Sjnayayqjayat tSn), and theSisupalavadha ot 1812 ( . . . KuppS Bhaffena rsind varnayantre suyojitam....), as well as in that of theMarathi Yuddhakanda of 1809 ( . . . BhSvardmdyane Yuddhakande kdkdrafikamatanutars KuppakhyaBhatfomayantre ' There would appear to be some printing errors here). For further details ofthese editions see Appendix.

20 See footnote 11.JO R. B. Gosvimi, A descriptive catalogue of the Marathi manuscripts and books in the Tanjore

Maharaja Sarfoji's Sarasvati Mahal Library, 4 vols., Tanjore, 1929-63 [almost exclusively con-cerned with manuscripts]; Catalogue of printed books in the Tanjore Maharaja Sarfoji's SarasvatiMahal Library, Tanjore, 1940 [mostly works in English, but also 410 Marathi items, pp.206-19].

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bibliography of Marathi books.31 A. C. Burnell disagrees and states that thefirst production of the press was a traditional almanac or paHcahga in Sanskritand Marathi32 which was continued for several years until superseded bythose of the Bombay lithographic presses. No such almanac has been seen ortraced, though it must be remembered that ephemera of this kind may nothave been considered worthy of attention by early European collectors ofprinted materials and hence their absence in major libraries today.33

The translation of Aesop's fables into Marathi was made at the Raja'srequest from an English edition of the day, most probably the popularcollection compiled by Samuel Croxall,34 by Sarabnoji's Prime Minister,'himself a Mahratta of high rank',35 who is named in the book's colophon asSakkhana Pandita.36

In the absence of a title-page and signatures, only the following briefbibliographical description can be given:

Collation: 8°. 198 leaves, ff. [1-2], 1-196.

Contents:[1*] woodcut of Siva and Parvati, [ib] blank, [2*] woodcut ofGanda, [2b] blank, i*-4b preface, 5"-iom text, iob blank, nm-i4m text, I4b

blank, I5a-io6a text, I9<5b blank.

Paper: white laid paper watermarked with a Strasburg bend (E. Heawood,Watermarks mainly of the 17th and 18th Centuries, Amsterdam, 1950, plate 16,item 104; A. E. Shorter, Paper mills and paper makers in England I4gs~i8oo,Hilversum, 1957, p. 379, fig. 200) with the countermark of the mill's nameJ. WHATMAN. After the death of James Whatman II in 1798, this counter-mark continued to be used by Hollingworths & Balston until 1806 when itbecame the exclusive property of William Balston.37 Paper from two otherEnglish mills was also used to a minor degree: ff. [1-2] bear the countermarkBUDGEN, and ff. 121-2 the countermark PORTAL & BRIDGES.

Binding: the original binding has not survived. Soon after its presentation tothe Library, the volume was rebound in the British Museum Bindery whenthe two leaves of a handwritten note (on a different inferior paper with nowatermark) were also guarded in. It is even possible to speculate (despitethe evidence of the note—see below) that the work was not bound as sucn inTanjore, but was produced in single sheets kept between wooden boards inthe Indian manner.

« Marathi Granthasud, (1800-1937), Poona, 1943, L 826.» Bumell, p. 194. See also Appendix.31 The earliest Marathi-Sanskrit paHcShga in the British Library's collection is dated Bombay

1866. It should be remembered in this regard that the Indian Press Act, under which copyrightcopies of works published were required to be deposited with the governments of the threePresidencies, was only passed in 1867.

J4 Originally published London 1722 with numerous subsequent editions.« From the note.J6 Sakkhana's involvement with the press was evidently not confined to this one production

since he is named again in the colophons of two Sanskrit works: the Tarlcasmgraha of 1811{Ayam sangrahaiSuddhalarkasya lelptah[?] svayam Hubballi vamfya SakkhmnmnmnJ) and theKumarasambhavaumpu of 1814 (Sakkhannakhya vipaicitahtalipir vame ytmtre...). He may evenhave been a 'co-superintendent' of the press with Kuppa Bhafta.

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212 The Tanjore 'Aesop' in the Context ofThe book is handsomely arranged and follows in its appearance precisely

the conventions of an Indian manuscript—almost as though it were intendedto be a facsimile edition. Thus, as stated above, there is no title-page, thetext being prefaced by two delightful woodcuts. The first shows the Hindugod Siva and his consort Parvati riding on the bull Nandi, the second Siva'selephant-headed son Gane£a, the god who removes obstacles and who istherefore traditionally invoked by a scribe when beginning the copying of amanuscript. According to the note: 'The woodcuts were made, the paperwas manufactured and the book itself was bound in the palace.' Though thenote can probably be believed here regarding the woodcuts, which were alsoused to illustrate the YuddhakmJa of 1809 and the Tarkasangraha of 1811(see Appendix), as can be seen from the description above the paper wascertainly not locally made but imported from England.38 Again in thefashion of a manuscript, the book is foliated—not paginated—and the aus-picious symbol cha^ has been printed several times at the end of the prefaceand intermittently throughout the text at the end of individual fables. Italso imitates Indian manuscript practice in the way it is dated-40 There aretwo dates given. The first at the end of the Marathi preface states that thewriting of the work was completed on the second day of the bright half ofthe month of Karttika in the year 1728 of the Salivahana Saka era, i.e. 1806A.D., since that era began only in 78 A.D..41 The second date is given in theSanskrit colophon at the very end of the book which states that the work wasseen through the press some three years after its composition on the thirteenthday of the bright half of the month of Pausa in the Saka year 1731, i.e. 1809A.D. This second date, being given in the form of a chronogram,42 haspreviously passed unnoticed, but it establishes despite the note's claim thatthe Balabodnamuktavali was not the first product of Sarabhojl's press. Thathonour belongs either to Burnell's parkHnga of 1805? or to the Amarakoiaprinted in 1807.

Each fable, illustrated at its head by a small woodcut, is translated intoMarathi prose followed by the interpretation garbhitartha (in Croxall's editiontermed the 'application') and ending with a pithy summary in a singleSanskrit verse, a two-lined iloka. In every fable this closing Sanskrit verse isdistinctively printed to great effect in red ink, whereas the rest of the text and

" Sec the two works by T. Balston, _/<wr« Whatman Father & Son, London, 1957, pp. 157-9,and William Balston paper maker, 19$+, pp. 164-5. Both Whatman and later Balston wereleading supplier! of paper to the East India Company.

18 Burncll, p. 194, states that all the copies of works printed at SinbhojTs press which he hasseen are on European hand-made paper. This confirms my own findings from examination ofthe British Library and India Office Library holdings.

39 Sec the notes in J. F. Blumhardt, Catalogue of the Cujarati and Rajasthani manuscripts in theIndia Office Library, revised and enlarged by Alfred Master, 1954, p.7.

*° For further examples of this see Diehl, pp. 69-71.41 Sulivahanalaka 1728 ksayanama samuatsarlin kSrtika suddha 2 budhavUri he balaboanamuktdvaU

puraS lihitl ase.42 SatwdhaJake kalausaya mite fukWchya samvatsare pusye masi sita trayodaia tithau saumye tathS

vasare. The chronogram is contained in the four syllables koAau-sa-ya which must be read fromright to left, Lc 1731. Fordetails of this KafapaySdi method of expressing numerals by letters seeA. C. BumelL Elements of South Indian palaeography, and edn., 1878, p. 79.

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the woodcuts are printed in black.43 There are 110 fables kahanl in all, just asin CroxalTs edition, and they follow more or less the same order, except thatthe first two fables are reversed, i.e. the Tanjore collection begins with Thewolf and the lamb' followed by The cock and the jewel' instead of viceversa. It ends with The tortoise and the eagle' as in Croxall. Apart frombeing the earliest such in Marathi, this is certainly one of the earliest trans-lations of Aesop's fables into any Indian language. In 1803 John Gilchrist hadpublished in Calcutta The Oriental fabulist or polyglot translations ofEsop's andother ancient fables, but this is by no means a complete translation of the fablesand, besides, Romanization is used throughout. The Tanjore 'Aesop', there-fore, is probably the earliest complete translation into any Indian languageand the first to be printed in an Indian script.

It is not known how many works were produced by Sarabhoji's press,perhaps no more than a dozen,44 and it is equally impossible to state with anyprecision how long it continued to operate. It was still functioning at the timeof Bishop Heber's visit in March 1826 when a sentence in Marathi was struckoff in his honour45 but whether the press was still producing whole works bythen seems open to doubt since the latest work so far traced was printed in1814. In any case, it almost certainly ceased to be in service with Sarabhojl'sdeath in 1833, having been 'the rarest curiosity of an Indian court',45 thehobby of a Raja with an eccentric enthusiasm for Western machineryprobably not shared by his successors. None the less, for all its brief life andthe small number of works which it produced, its importance as the earliestprinting press in Tanjore cannot be denied, nor, despite the fact that itsoutput was primarily in Sanskrit, should its contribution to the history ofMarathi printing be overlooked.

London

APPENDIX

A Chronological Listing of the Books Printed at Sarabhojl's Press

The details given below have been assembled from the printed catalogues ofSanskrit and Marathi books in the Department of Oriental Manuscripts andPrinted Books, British Library, and in the India Office Library and Records, as wellas from die printed catalogues of Sanskrit and Marathi books and manuscripts inthe Tanjore Sarasvati Mahal Library itself. The holdings of the British Library andthe India Office Library have also been examined to provide more information.

The catalogues of the Library of die School of Oriental and African Studies,University of London, have been searched but diey do not appear to contain anyof these early Tanjore imprints.

« The title of each fable, the other heading* (iloka, etc) and die dandes are also in red.** Details of tome of the Sanskrit editions printed by Sirabhojl may be obtained from

P. P. S. Sastri, A descriptive catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the Tanjore Maharaja Sarfqji'sSarasvati Mahal Library, ao vok, Srirangam, 1928-52. See also Appendix.

45 Robinson, p. 167.

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214 The Tanjore 'Aesop' in the Context of Early Marathi PrintingBibliographical details of the sources here referred to simply as BurnelL GosvamI,

Sastri, and Priolkar have already been given in the footnotes to the main articleabove.

The date given in brackets is the year of the Saka era and has only been addedwhen it is known from the colophon of the book.

Abbreviations used:BL Dcpt. of Oriental Mss. and Printed Books, British LibraryIOL India Office Library and RecordsSML Sarasvati Mahal Library

Date

1805? PaHcanga [i.e. Calendar-cum-aimanar], Sanskrit and Marathi.According to Burnell die very first product of the press but no

copies located. GosvamI, however, does list printed Paficarigas inSML for S"aka Samvat 1727, 1730-34, 1736-77, all of which couldconceivably have been printed by Sarabhoji's press.

1807 [1729] Amarakofa of Amarasirnha. Sanskrit. 8°. 69 ff.A copy in BL. two copies in IOL one of which presented by the

Telugu scholar C. P. Brown. According to Burnell there was also afolio edition of this work.

1808 Raghuvamia of Kalidasa. Sanskrit. 8°. 97 ff.Recorded only by Burnell. No copy traced.

1809 [1731] Balabodhamuktavah. Marathi. 8°. 196 ff.Two copies in BL. Illustrated with woodcuts of &va and Ganes*a

as frontispieces and with smaller woodcuts throughout the text.1809 [1731] YudJhakanda of the Bhavartharamayana of Ekanatha, widi commen-

tary. Marathi. 469 ff.Fifteen copies in SML. Illustrated with a woodcut of Ganes"a as

a frontispiece and another woodcut (of a coronation?) in the text.1810? Muktavati of Viivanatha Paflcanana Bhattacarya. Sanskrit. 8°.

46 ff.According to both Burnell and Sastri, all 12 copies in SML are

incomplete.1811 [1733] Tarkasangraha of Annambhatta. Sanskrit. 8°. 8 ff.

Fifty-four copies in SML. Illustrated with woodcuts of S*iva andGanesa as frontispieces. Cf. Bdlabodhamuktavati.

1811 [1733] DipikS of Annambhatta. Sanskrit. 8°. 22ff.Twenty-eight copies in SML.

1812 [1734] Karikavati (Bhasapariccheda) of Viivanatha Paficanana Bhattacarya.Sanskrit. 8°. 10 ff.

At least one copy in SML.1812 [1734] Siiupalavadha of Magha. Sanskrit. 8°. 106 ff.

At least one copy in SML. Also one copy in IOL presented byC. P. Brown.

1814 [1736] KumarasambhavacampU of Cokkana Kavi. Sanskrit. 25 ff.A copy in IOL." Two copies in SML. The colophon attributes

the work to Sarabhoji II himself.

at Vanderbilt U

niversity on May 2, 2014

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