I haven't been there in years; I couldn't tell you. Someone at Harvard, in Sanskrit, might have the information. As for the photo, it does look staged, and it does seem to be a standard 19th century depiction of "native" castes / rituals / costumes. Thanks to all of you for your responses. I'll report back to the list if I hear anything further. All best, AV.
On Fri, Jul 18, 2025 at 4:18 AM Yahoo!Mail® <[email protected]> wrote: > I’m sorry, but I have no information on the picture. > > However, I am puzzled by the “homepage” for Widener Room A. It says there > are 1500 manuscripts housed there. I have no memory of such a thing from a > decade inhabiting that room. As far as I know all the South Asian mss in > Harvard are kept in the Houghton along with the Western mss. There were > some quite rare European printed books there from the 17th century, as well > as some non-book raria such as glass slides of the old Bangkok royal > palace, depicting even the female Amazonian harem guards. But Prof. > Ingalls, perhaps around 1970, got tired of the disorder and assigned > students to take some things to their more appropriate depositories. I > don’t recall dealing with any non-Western mss. > > I don’t see how 1500 Indic mss could be kept in any safe and orderly > fashion in that small room. > > If they are there, could they possibly be a recent gift? > > Or could this simply be an error on the Widener A page? > > > Allen > -- *Ananya Vajpeyi* https://www.csds.in/ananya_vajpeyi
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