Asian and African studies blog

The previous blog post in this series on the provenance of the Colebrooke Collection of Sanskrit manuscripts in the British Library examined the role of Indian ‘pandits’ in gathering the manuscripts. This blog outlines how Colebrooke, along with the pandits Citrapati and Bābūrāma, became entangled in accusations of corruption.

In 1807, Colebrooke was made a member of the supreme council of the Government of Bengal, a position he would hold until the end of 1812. He had established a reputation as both a capable administrator and a respected Sanskrit scholar, and his knowledge of Hindu law in particular had proven to be a great asset for the East India Company. However, at this time the EIC was still struggling to cast off its reputation as a rapacious corporation and present itself instead as a responsible administrator of British territories in India.

South East View of the New Government House of the East India Company in Calcutta, published in 1805 (British Library, P1685).

In the early years of the nineteenth century, a series of scandals led to the removal of several of the Company’s district judges. One of these was William Brodie who, in 1810, was suspended due to findings of corruption while he had been judge and magistrate of Purnia. The charges had centred on an inheritance dispute for which he had been accused of accepting a bribe from one of the parties. The allegations were made by a local landholder, Charles Reed, who had been representing one of the other parties in the dispute. The proceedings had dragged on, but Reed persisted, and after the verdict against Brodie was passed, Reed began making accusations against the higher-ranking members of the judiciary, who he believed had been obstructing his earlier efforts to bring Brodie to trial.

Colebrooke was one of those now in the firing line. When he had ascended to the supreme council, he had also taken on the role of chief judge of the superior court. Although his day-to-day involvement in the courts was limited, his reputation as an authority in Hindu law meant he was often consulted for his opinion. Charles Reed now accused him of misusing his authority, and Colebrooke vigorously defended himself. In the records of the proceedings of the supreme council we find a number of lengthy responses Colebrooke made to these allegations. He also gave up his position as chief judge, in an effort to prevent any future accusations.

The New Court House and Chandpal Ghaut, from a set of views of Calcutta, published in 1788 (British Library, P46).

However, Colebrooke’s efforts to protect himself would have implications for the pandits he had formerly employed. Citrapati, now pandit of the superior court, had earlier been called on to give an opinion on the inheritance dispute mentioned above. However, he was then accused of receiving a bribe from one of the parties. Charles Reed seized on Citrapati’s connections with Colebrooke in order to accuse the latter, and Colebrooke again sought to defend himself. In doing so, however, he left Citrapati exposed. In a supreme council meeting in February 1812, Colebrooke claimed that Citrapati had visited him at his home ‘with much apparent agitation’ to report the charge brought against him. Colebrooke recounted that he replied to Citrapati that ‘whatever explanation or vindication he had to offer… must be stated, not to me, but to the court before which the accusation has been preferred.’ He then ‘immediately dismissed him, and have forbidden his future visits to my house.’

Extract from Colebrooke’s Minute, presented to the Supreme Council at their meeting at Fort William on 10 February 1812 (British Library, IOR P/130/45, 10 February 1812, No. 19).

Citrapati was adamant that he had refused the offer of a bribe. However, he had not spoken of it until this time, and this, Colebrooke claimed, ‘indicates a way of thinking not accordant with the delicate and scrupulous integrity which should be expected from a person holding the office which he does’. Furthermore, he claimed, ‘it will constitute in my opinion a sufficient ground for his removal though he should be proved innocent of the charge.’ (IOR/P/130/45, 10 February 1812, No. 19). The rest of the council concurred, and Citrapati was immediately suspended, pending an investigation.

Bābūrāma also found himself embroiled in the allegations against Citrapati. In a statement made to the court, Citrapati claimed that, after he had refused the proffered bribe, the alleged briber tried to leave the money at Citrapati’s house, promising to collect it the next day. Citrapati refused this also and stated that: "I afterwards heard that having left them [the money] with Bābūrāma, whose house is at some distance from mine, he had departed, and that he had said to Bābūrāma that he would on the morrow send a man to fetch them; but next day no man came to take them away. On the day following, Bābūrāma took the money… and gave it to him" [i.e. back to the alleged briber] (IOR/P/130/45, 18 February 1812, No. 79).

Reed seized on this detail, asserting that the bribe had been ‘left in deposit with one of Mr Colebrooke’s servants’ and that ‘it will necessarily follow that Mr Colebrooke is guilty of a most heinous offence, equally so as if the money had been deposited for the joint benefit of himself and Citrapati’ (IOR/P/130/45, 10 February 1812, No. 20). Colebrooke sought to defend himself against this association, declaring: "The person mentioned as my servant and with whom the rejected bribe is said to have been afterwards for a short time deposited, is one who was formerly employed by me as a Sanskrit Copyist. He ceased to be employed by me in that capacity six or seven years ago, on his setting up a Sanskrit Press. But I have since continued to him a monthly allowance in consideration of his occasionally attending to sort and arrange my collection of oriental manuscripts. In this relation of service towards me, it was a great dereliction of duty to undertake, for a day, or for an hour, the custody of a deposit yet tainted with the corrupt destination it had borne though rejected."

He went on: "However mortifying it is to find that some at least, if not all these persons, are so undeserving of the favourable opinion I entertained of them, and that several of them happen by a vexatious coincidence to be persons who have been at some period in my service, I trust that my name has been in no shape mixed in their proceedings." (IOR/P/130/45, 10 February 1812, No. 21)

In a context in which the EIC was under close scrutiny from critics in Britain, Colebrooke was keen to protect himself from any suspicion of misconduct. However, this came at the expense of the pandits whose assistance had been vital to his achievements in India.

Several months passed following Citrapati’s suspension, and then in November 1812 his voice once more appears in the proceedings of the Government of Bengal. Citrapati submitted a petition to the Governor General, ending with a plea ‘that your Lordship in Council will deem it proper to clear from the false accusation a poor Pundit (your Petitioner) who is for a period of nine months oppressed under the suspension from his office, and at the same time will be pleased to extend your natural clemency towards him by pronouncing an order for reinstating him to his former situation’ (IOR/P/131/7, 14 November 1812, No. 21).

The ending of Citrapati’s petition to the Governor General of Bengal (IOR/P/131/7, 14 November 1812, No. 21).

Problems with locating the relevant witnesses meant that the enquiries into Citrapati’s case were again delayed. He submitted a further petition in February 1813, but to no avail. A year later, in March 1814, Citrapati died, and the investigation was never concluded. As for Bābūrāma, it is unclear whether Colebrooke continued to employ him as a librarian. But we know that his Sanskrit Press ceased to operate following Colebrooke’s departure from India, in 1814.

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts on the provenance of the Colebrooke collection of Sanskrit manuscripts in the British Library. The first post introduced the Colebrooke family and the East India Company; the second post focused on Colebrooke's manuscripts on Hindu law and the third on Colebrooke and the pandits. The next, and final, blog in this series will consider the legacies of Colebrooke and his pandits.

Works Consulted
Jha, Jagdish Chandra, ‘Some Light on the Early Judicial System of the East India Company’, The Journal of the Bihar Research Society Vol. LIII, Parts I-V (1967), pp. 214-223.
Rocher, Rosanne and Rocher, Ludo, The Making of Western Indology: Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Company (London: Routledge, 2012).
Minute of H. T. Colebrooke, 17 December 1811 (Government of Bengal Proceedings 17 December 1811, No. 1). British Library, IOR/P/148/71.
Minute of H. T. Colebrooke, 6 February 1812 (Government of Bengal Proceedings 10 February 1812, No. 19). British Library, IOR/P/130/45.
Letter from Charles Reed to the Governor General, 7 February 1812 (Government of Bengal Proceedings 10 February 1812, No. 20). British Library, IOR/P/130/45.
Minute of H. T. Colebrooke, 7 February 1812 (Government of Bengal Proceedings 10 February 1812, No. 21). British Library, IOR/P/130/45.
Statement by Citrapati [D], 13 February 1812 (Government of Bengal Proceedings 18 February 1812, No. 79). British Library, IOR/P/130/45.
Petition of Citrapati (Government of Bengal Proceedings 14 November 1812, No. 21). British Library, IOR/P/131/7.

David Woodbridge, Provenance Researcher Sanskrit Collections (REAP pilot project 2023-2025)

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra or the Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Lines is one of the earliest works of Mahayana Buddhism and the earliest of the Perfection of Wisdom cycle. It probably originated in South and South-Central India, about the 2nd century CE. The Ashtasahasrika consists of 32 chapters, but in the centuries that followed its composition, it was both expanded - up to 100,000 sections - and contracted down to a few brief verses, and finally into one syllable (“A”).

The Buddha,12-13th century. British Library, Or. 2202, f. 1v

The Ashtasahasrika was the first philosophical text to be translated from the Mahayana literature into Chinese. It was also translated into Tibetan, first around 850 CE and then again in 1020, and was subsequently compared with many Indian manuscripts and commentaries and revised in 1030, 1070 and again in 1500 (Conze 1975: xi).

Devi Prajnaparamita, the personification of wisdom, seated in Padmasana holding a book, 12-13th century. British Library, Or. 2202, f. 2v

The manuscript copies of this text found in India are among the oldest of the Mahayana scriptures and they typically feature miniatures depicting buddhas, bodhisattvas, goddesses, wrathful divinities, and the eight great events in the life of Gautama the Buddha. However, these illustrations are not related to the text itself (Losty 1982: 20). The miniatures are usually placed at the beginning, in the middle (beginning of the 12th chapter), and at the end of the text.

The British Library holds some early manuscript copies of the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita. One of the earliest copies is Or. 6902, written in Kutila script on palm leaf. It was copied in c. 970, at the monastery of Vikramashila (modern day Bihar). Vikramshila was a monastic university founded by King Dharmapala (c. 781-821) to teach the doctrine of the Prajnaparamita, but was destroyed, along with other Buddhist monasteries, at the end of the 12th century, by the forces of Muhammad of Ghor.

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, written in Sanskrit in Kutila script on palm leaf, Bodhisattva Manjusri, Vikramshila, c. 970 CE, British Library, Or. 6902, f. 336v

Another copy, Or. 12461, also in Kutila script, is written on talipot leaves. It can be dated to the late Pala period in the middle of the12th century and was copied at a monastery other than Nalanda or Vikramshila. It is heavily illustrated and misses a few folios. The miniatures in this copy have a complex arrangement, with the usual placement being combined with another cycle of miniatures. Also, the selection of divinities and their pairing within the overall scheme is unclear, perhaps suggesting a single enormous Mandala (Losty 1982:33).

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, written in Sanskrit in Kutila script on talipot leaf, White Tara, Eastern India or Nepal, 12th century. British Library, Or.12461, f. 192v

A third copy, Or. 14203 is in proto-Bengali script and was written in the 12-13th century. There is a mixture of Indian and Nepalese elements in this manuscript. The script is an example of the transition from the Siddhamatrka script of the Bihar monasteries and the Bengali hand (Zwalf 1985: 117).

The Ashtasahasrika discusses the nature of Buddhahood, Bodhisattvahood, and of Wisdom. Like the Lalitavistara and other Mahayana sutras, the topics in this text are expounded in two versions: prose and verse. The verses are earlier and in what could be termed ‘Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit’, while the prose is generally in Sanskrit (Conze 1967: 168-9). The verse section is preserved under the name Ratnaguna (Prajnaparamita-Ratnaguna-samcaya-gatha) which consists of 302 “verses on the Perfection of Wisdom which is the Storehouse of Precious Virtues”. 

The original text of the Ratnaguna seems to have been lost, and the existing composition, has been rearranged or divided into chapters by Haribhadra, the great expert on the Perfection of Wisdom, in the 8th century. Therefore, its historical and chronological aspects cannot be easily determined as we cannot be certain if Haribhadra added, omitted, or altered occasional verses. Unfortunately, the Chinese translators also missed the original text and produced a translation of Haribhadra’s revision in 1001 CE (Conze 1967: 168-9). The 41 verses of the first two chapters of the Ratnaguna may well go back to 100 B.C. They constitute the original Prajnaparamita and all the other versions seem to be their elaborations. These chapters form one single text held together by the constant recurrence of the verse “and that is the practice of wisdom, the highest perfection” (Conze 1975: x).

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, written in Sanskrit in Lantsa script on indigo paper, Prajnaparamita Devi and a bodhisattva, probably Avalokiteshvara, Nepal, 12-13th century. British Library, Or. 2202, f. 2v

Like other Mahayana sutras, the Ashtasahasrika is in form of dialogues between the Buddha Shakyamuni, three of his best disciples, and others such as Indra, the king of gods, and the Goddess of the Ganges. The three disciples - Subhuti, Shariputra, Ananda - are technically known as ‘auditors’ (shravaka) because they have heard the doctrine directly from the Buddha. The dialogues present the teachings on emptiness and describe the path and practices a bodhisattva should take to realise it.

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, written in Sanskrit in proto-Bengali script on palm leaf, the bodhisattva Lokanatha with Varada-mudra, Eastern India and Nepal, 12-13th century. British Library, Or. 14203, f. 14r

In these dialogues, what is said is just as important as who says it:

Where Subhuti, “the foremost of those who dwell in peace”, talks, it is the Buddha himself who speaks through him. He was one of “the eighty great disciples” of the tradition of the Elders (Theravadins) who was distinguished for his practice of friendliness or loving-kindness and for understanding emptiness. In older Buddhism, loving-kindness (maitri) was a minor virtue, but in Mahayana it is revered to the point where its embodiment, Subhuti, is placed above all the other disciples.

Shariputra had been for the Elders the first of those highly mastered in Wisdom. Wisdom, a term for “Abhidharma” (meaning higher doctrine), grew among the followers of the Buddha three centuries after his death. Abhidharma is a system of meditation that analyses and classifies all the processes and events in the conditioned world which could affect salvation. In the Mahayana tradition, however, Shariputra is portrayed as being blind to the One Ultimate Truth, and unable to get away from his preoccupation with multiplicity and dualities. He is no longer the “second Buddha” of the older tradition.

Ananda, known as “the treasurer of the Dharma”, was the Buddha’s personal attendant for thirty years. He was well known for his devotion to the Buddha and had heard all the Buddha’s discourses. He was also famous for his sharp memory, and was said to have been able to take in 60,000 lines uttered by the Buddha, without missing a single syllable.

In addition to these three disciples, we have Purna, Maitreya, the coming Buddha, and Shakra, the chief of gods, each speaking on different topics. The sutra starts in the traditional way: “Thus have I heard at one time”- “I” here is Ananda who is believed to have recited also this sutra shortly after the Buddha’s Nirvana. (Conze 1975: xii-xiv)

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, written in Sanskrit in Kutila script on talipot leaf, Sarvanivarana-Vishkambhin, Eastern India and Nepal, 12th century. British Library, Or.12461, f. 250v

Like many Mahayana texts, the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita emphasises that the phenomenal world does not really exist, even the perfection of wisdom does not exist, as it is immeasurable, eternal, and without end. The passage compares it with space: just as space has no measure, no duration, no end, similarly, the perfection of wisdom has no measure, no duration, no end. (Bronkhorst 2009: 120)

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, written in Sanskrit in Kutila script on palm leaf, the Buddha with hands in the dharmachakra-mudra seated with his two disciples, Vikramshila, c. 970 CE. British Library, Or. 6902, f. 1v

The Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita, written in Sanskrit in Lantsa script on indigo paper, the Buddha and a figure holding a vina (the musical instrument) with blue lotus on either side, Nepal,12-13th century. British Library, Or. 2202, f. 1v

The bodhisattva Sarvanivarana-Vishkambhin, Eastern India,12th century. British Library, Or.12461, f. 250v

Bibliography
British Museum. Dept. of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts. Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1902.
Conze, Edward. Thirty Years of Buddhist Studies: Selected Essays by Edward Conze. Oxford: Cassirer; London: Faber, 1967.
Conze, Edward. The Perfection of Wisdom in eight thousand lines, and its verse summary. Four Seasons Foundation, 1975.
Losty, Jeremiah P. The Art of the Book in India. London: British Library, 1982.
Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2009.
Zwalf, W. Buddhism: Art and Faith. London: British Museum Publications for the Trustees of the British Museum and the British Library Board, 1985.

Azadeh Sokouhi, Sanskrit cataloguer

This guest blog is by Muhammed Khaleel, who in 2024 surveyed early Arabi-Malayalam lithographed books in the British Library.

While I was going through the uncatalogued collections of early Arabi-Malayalam printed books in the Asian and African Collections in the British Library, I came across dozens of lithographed books all sharing a consistent structure, style and format, and which were copied by no more than three scribes all with very similar handwriting, suggesting a common origin. However, essential data such as author details, copyright information and seals of registration were missing from the title pages compared to later Arabi-Malayalam texts printed in the twentieth century in Kerala, while the colophons generally only gave information on the publisher. I thus began checking these works in detail against the entries in the official quarterly lists of books published from Madras, the Fort St. George Gazette Supplement, which is also held in the British Library.

After a detailed examination, I found that these books were all published in the 1870s and 1880s by early lithographic presses owned by Mappila Muslims based in Thalassery, a major port city in northern Malabar, in the South Indian state of Kerala. During this period, the important figures who established the early presses were Thalassery Mēlēkkandi KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī, Veḷippicc Kandi Kuññi Moosa, Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad, and Nīrāṭṭu Pīṭikayil Kuññi Aḥmad. The location of these presses at Thalassery, a city historically renowned for its trade and cultural interactions since the early modern times, soon made the city the major center of Arabi-Malayalam printing, until Aniyārappuṟattu Ammu established his famous Muḥkī al-Gharā’ib press in the end of the nineteenth century in Ponnāni. Thereafter, the center of Arabi-Malayalam printing shifted from Thalassery to Tirūrangādi and Ponnāni, two cities in the district of Malappuram, which were also renowned as religious centers of Malabar.

Fig. 1. Title page (left) and colophon (right) of kappappāṭṭ, a literary text printed in 1882 at KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī’s press by his son Nāyam vītil ʿAbduh: Nāyam vīṭil purayil vecc accadiccirikkunnu, ‘printed at Nāyam vītil house’. British Library (shelfmark pending)

As is evident from the colophons, these early lithographic presses didn’t have official names or offices but were established by the aforementioned figures in their private homes in Thalassery, except for Kuññi Moosa, who established his printing press in Thalassery Bazar, the then city center.

Fig.2. Title page (left) and colophon (right) of Kelavante pāṭṭ published by Veḷippicc Kandi Kuññi Moosa’s press in 1875. British Library (shelfmark pending)

Athough lithographic presses had been present in Malabar since 1821, it is not clearly recorded when the first Arabi-Malayalam lithograph was published. However, the press established by KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī in his residence, Nāyam vītil, was the first lithographic press under the Muslim ownership to print Arabi-Malayalam texts. KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī, a passionate person in spreading knowledge, sent one of his sons, Kuññaḥmed, to the Basel Mission printing press in Thalassery to work as a printer (Aabu 1970: 126). After learning the technique of lithographic printing, Kuññaḥmed came back to help his father KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī establish the press in 1867. Registered as ‘Koyali hajee, nayan veetil in pazhassi tellicherry’ the press began its operation by printing a Qurʾān.

Around this time, probably in the mid-1870s, Velippicc Kandi Kuññi Moosa also established his press in Thalassery Bazar which was recorded as ‘Valmiki rawdi coonji nissa’ in the quarterly list. During the same decade, another publisher named Nīrātti Pīṭikayil Kuññi Aḥmed, recorded in the quarterly list as Nuratti padikail kunḥammed, began appearing in the scene, as did Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad who printed books at his home in Thayyil Kandi in Tiruvangād. Interestingly, all these presses published several of the same titles during the 1870s and 1880s as is evident from the British Library collection. Despite printing the same titles, there apparently held a competition between presses on various matters.


Fig. 3. Paratextual sections in a much later text titled Karāmāt al-a’aẓam, printed in 1950, with full publication details. British Library (shelfmark pending)

In terms of the very simple structure, format and style, these books are evidently forerunners in Arabi-Malayalam printing. There is almost no decoration except for the title page, where the title is written in a small font size on the top of the page with extremely minimal floral decorations (see fig.1 and 2). O. Aabu, a historian of Arabi-Malayalam, argues that press owners did not pay attention to designs and decorations in the title page (1970: 127), and yet several floral designs and decorations can be seen in the early Qurʾān printed by KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī in 1867. I suggest that this could be for two reasons: firstly, as lithographs are basically copied from manuscripts, the scribes copied what they saw in manuscripts of the Qurʾān, which were more likely to be decorated than other manuscripts. The second possibility is that the scribes wanted to make Qurʾān unique in its design from other texts, and hence made it distinct with decorations. The former is more likely as we do see a difference compared with literary texts: in other words, the Qurʾān and other religious texts were decorated to signify their sacrality.

Fig. 4a. Title page of Muḥyudhīn malā published by Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad’s press in 1875. British Library (shelfmark pending)

Fig. 4b. Colophon of Muḥyudhīn malā published by Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad’s press in 1875. British Library (shelfmark pending)

Although all these texts had colophons, they only provided the information about the printing press, its owner, the scribe of the lithograph and the date of copying. Other important information such as the identity of the author and copyright information were not found. The highlighting of publisher details suggests that the presses deemed this information as more relevant than others.

Fig. 5a. Title page of Niskārattinte duāʿyum mattum published by Nīrāṭṭu Pīṭikayil Kuññi Aḥmad in 1875. British Library (shelfmark pending)

Fig. 5b. Colophon page of Niskārattinte duāʿyum mattum (1875) published by Nīrāṭṭu Pīṭikayil Kuññi Aḥmad in 1875. British Library (shelfmark pending)

Further, it can be noticed that the early concept of copyright in Arabi-Malayalam imprints was both fluid and contested. For instance, Muḥyudhīn malā, one of the most well-renowned liturgies in Malabar written by Qāḍī Muḥammed (d. 1616), on the life of a Baghdadi ṣūfī, ʿAbdul Qādir al-Jīlanī (d. 1116), was published by almost all these publishers without any copyright statements. The British Library holds at least three early copies of the text, one aprinted by Nīrāṭṭu Pīṭikayil Kuññi Aḥmad in 1873, a second by Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad in 1875 and another by KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī in 1876. Concomitantly, there were assertions of the right to publish the text as well, in terms which are slightly different from contemporary copyright laws. The copy of Muḥyudhīn malā published by KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī mentions that their lithograph is a direct copy of the original manuscript of the text that was preserved by the family of Qāḍī Muḥammed, which is a clear statement claiming that KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī had more authority to publish the text than his counterparts.

Fig.6. Title page (left) and colophon (right) of an early copy of Cārdarveś published by Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad’s press in 1875, although a few accounts state that Cārdarveś was first published in 1883 (See Moulavi and Kareem, 1978). British Library (shelfmark pending)

The early lithographic presses also competed with each other on printing popular literary titles. The earliest literary text in the collection is from 1871, printed by the press of Kuññi Moosa, and was followed by a significant number of texts in the next year. During the same year, the press of Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad also marked its entry by printing the novel Cārdarveś, resulting in an apparent competition between the press of Kuññi Moosa and that of Arayālappuṟatt Kuññaḥammad. The British Library collection reveals that 1875 saw the peak of competition between the two presses in publishing literary texts containing panegyrics, hagiographies and different types of songs related to Islamic history. Surprisingly, KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī’s press only joined the trend of publishing literary texts in the early 1880s, after focusing earlier on core religious subjects such as jurisprudence and theology, with titles such as Manāsik al-ḥajj (1875), Īmān: Islām tarjama (1875), Wājibāt al-mukallafīn (1881) and so on. Muḥuyudhīn māla, printed in 1875, was the only exception to this.

By 1881, KoyāʿAlī Ḥājī’s press began printing literary texts containing panegyrics, song traditions such as Qiṣṣappāttu and Malappāttu, and other cultural forms of Persian tales, reaching a peak in 1883. Some of the common titles printed by all these publishers are Jinn pada paatt, Kavi pattukalum padangalum, Kappappatt, Yusuf qiṣṣa ppāttu, Valiya kaccodappātt, Tashrif oppana, and so on. However, both the British Library collection and the quarterly lists indicate an absence of publications from these presses in the 1890s, suggesting that by this date these presses might have closed, or changed their names.

Muhammed Khaleel

Muhammed Khaleel is a graduate (2025) of the  dual degree in MA Islamic studies and Muslim Cultures at Columbia university, New York and Aga Khan University, London. His research interests include history of occult sciences, manuscript cultures, history of science, book history and history of Arabi-Malayalam. E-mail: [email protected]

Further Reading
Aabu, O. (1970) Arabi Malayala sahitya caritram. Kottayam: sahitya pravrthaka co-operative society. 
Moulavi, C.A. and Kareem, K.A. (1978) Mahattāya mappila pārambaryam. Calicut: Paraspara sahayi co-operative press.

Editorial note, 3 July 2025: for further information on the British Library collection of Arabi-Malayalam printed books, see:
Arafath, P. Y. (2020). Polyglossic Malabar: Arabi-Malayalam and the Muhiyuddinmala in the age of transition (1600s–1750s). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 30(3), 517-539.
Gamliel, O., & Kalluvalappil, S. A. (2024). Arabi-Malayalam disaster ballads: performative poetry and community resilience. Nidān, 8(2), 93-110.
Kooria, M. (2023). Arabic-Malayalam Texts at the British Library: Themes, Genres, and Production. International Journal of Islam in Asia, 3(1-2), 89-127.

The previous blog post in this series on the provenance of the Colebrooke Collection examined the story behind the Sanskrit legal manuscripts which form part of the Colebrooke Collection. The role of Indian ‘pandits’ in gathering these manuscripts is a vital part of this story, and this blog will delve deeper into the identities and stories of some of these figures. 

The title ‘pandit’ has its origins in the Sanskrit term ‘paṇḍita’, meaning a learned person. Specifically, this learning was rooted in the knowledge of Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, and the vast literature, going back millennia, composed in that language. Hindu religious texts were at the heart of this, but it also encompassed a wide range of disciplines across the sciences and humanities. The job of a pandit was to preserve and expound on this learning. He did this through memorising and reciting scriptures, producing copies of texts, writing commentaries, and by passing on his knowledge to his students. 

A number of East India Company employees, curious to learn more about Indian culture, had spent time studying Sanskrit with pandits. A few years following his arrival in India, Colebrooke began to do the same.

Citrapati and family
From 1789-94, Colebrooke was posted to Purnia, in north-eastern Bihar. Here, he encountered a pandit named Citrapati, who became one of his first teachers. Citrapati is named as the copyist of a manuscript in the Colebrooke Collection, produced in 1790, which is a copy of a twelfth-century text on algebra:  

The final page from the Bījagaṇita, the chapter on algebra in Bhāskara’s Siddhāntaśiromaṇi, which contains a colophon stating that the text was copied, ‘by order of Colebrooke Sahib, by Mahopādhyāya Citrapati’. ‘Mahopādhyāya’ is a title meaning ‘learned teacher’. British Library, IO San 871b

Colebrooke’s initial interest in learning Sanskrit, therefore, stemmed from a desire to learn about Indian mathematics. It’s an interest he later returned to, and in 1817 he would publish a translation of the above text, as a part of a larger work: Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration, from the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta and Bhàscara.

In a letter to his father, in 1797, Colebrooke recalled that ‘the means of acquiring the Sanskrit language were by translating a grammar and several dictionaries of it, with the help of a Brahmin [the priestly caste, of which pandits were members]’ (T. E. Colebrooke 1873, p. 89). Indeed, many of the manuscripts in the Colebrooke Collection dating from these years are grammatical works, including this one: 

A page from a copy of the Dhātupradīpa. British Library, IO San 434a 

This is the final page of a copy of the Dhātupradīpa, a twelfth-century work on Sanskrit grammar by Maitreya Rakṣita. The text ends with a colophon, identifying the copyist as ‘Vrajanandana Śarman, sister's son (bhāgineyaḥ) of Citrapati Śarman of Dhamdaha’. Vrajanandana, is named as the copyist for several manuscripts in the Colebrooke Collection, and this reflects how the profession of a pandit was something associated with entire families, often through many generations. Another text, produced about the same time, provides a window into Colebrooke’s study of Sanskrit under Citrapati and Vrajanandana: 

A page from the Amarakoṣa. British Library, IO San 3162

The text contained in the box in the centre of the page is from the Amarakoṣa, an early Sanskrit dictionary, copied in Bengali script by Vrajanandana. In the margins, in Colebrooke’s hand, are extracts from commentaries, written in Devanagari script, as well as English translations of certain phrases.

Bābūrāma
In 1795, Colebrooke received a new posting in Mirzapur, and here he met other pandits who would go on to produce manuscripts for him. The following image is from a copy of the Mahābhārata in the Colebrooke Collection. A colophon (in red ink) states the copyist to be ‘Bābūrāma, a Brahman of Mirzapur.’

A colophon in a copy of the Mahābhārata. British Library, IO San 1771

Like Citrapati, Bābūrāma first worked for Colebrooke as a copyist. But they would both accompany Colebrooke as he moved to different postings over the course of his career, and would continue to be employed either directly by him, or in roles connected to Colebrooke’s official duties with the East India Company.

In 1795, Colebrooke was appointed judge and magistrate for Mirzapur, and he appointed Citrapati to his official staff, in the role of pandit to the district court of Mirzapur. In this capacity, Citrapati provided advice to ensure that decisions taken in the court were consistent with Hindu law. 

Citrapati also produced manuscripts to assist with Colebrooke’s judicial duties. In 1797, Colebrooke had submitted a proposal to compile and translate a supplementary digest of Hindu law for use in the courts under EIC jurisdiction. For this work he was granted funds ‘to entertain the establishment of Pundits required by him’ (IOR/F/4/39/974). Citrapati was one of those employed, and for this he produced the Vyavahārasiddhāntapīyūṣā, a compilation of Hindu law codes with an accompanying commentary.

From the Vyavahārasiddhāntapīyūṣā.  The colophon, highlighted in red, identifies Citrapati Śarman as the compiler of the text and author of the accompanying commentary. It also states that the manuscript was composed for tāmasa-henṛks-kolabruka-sāhebājñayā, i.e. Henry Thomas Colebrooke.  British Library, IO San 3143

In 1802, Colebrooke was appointed a judge of the superior court in Calcutta [Kolkata]. Citrapati accompanied him to Calcutta, and then in 1806 was himself appointed to the superior court, as one of the two pandits employed to give decisions on Hindu law as it related to cases being tried in this court. 

Bābūrāma also accompanied Colebrooke to Calcutta, but his career went in a different direction. In a letter in June 1806, Colebrooke informed his father that ‘a printing press has been recently established by natives to print Sanskrit books on their own account. The types have been considerably improved for the purpose, under my directions; for, as you may easily suppose, the press has been established on encouragement from me’ (quoted in T. E. Colebrooke 1873, p. 227). It was Bābūrāma who took charge of this enterprise, and from 1807 to 1815 his Sanskrit Press produced editions of sixteen separate works of Sanskrit literature.

The Government of Bengal were subscribers to most of Bābūrāma’s publications, usually at the recommendation of Fort William College, which had been founded in Calcutta in 1800 to provide training for new EIC recruits. In this way, Bābūrāma’s proposal to print an edition of the epic poem Kiratarjuniya with the commentary called Ghaṇṭāpatha was supported by the Sanskrit professor at the College, who commented that, ‘They are both classical works, and will be useful in the College as class books’ (IOR/P/8/36). The Government agreed to subscribe for a hundred copies, to be distributed among the EIC colleges in Calcutta, Madras [Chennai], and Hertfordshire.

Similarly, the Government of Bengal ordered multiple copies of four legal texts produced by Bābūrāma’s Sanskrit Press, which they distributed not only to the different EIC colleges, but also to all of their law courts. Two of these texts, the Mitākṣarā and Dāyabhāga, had been translated by Colebrooke for his Two Treatises on the Hindu Law of Inheritance, and it was largely due to Colebrooke’s opinion of the significance of these works that Bābūrāma’s editions received this support.

The careers of Citrapati and Bābūrāma were therefore closely entwined with that of Colebrooke. At a time when the EIC was seeking to establish a judicial framework for governing its subjects in South Asia, Colebrooke made himself indispensable with his in-depth knowledge of Hindu law. Citrapati and Bābūrāma, having guided Colebrooke in his Sanskrit studies, now also benefited from their patron’s rise. However, as the next blog post will show, although there were opportunities for pandits in the new India, their position was always a precarious one.

This is the third in a series of blog posts on the provenance of the Colebrooke collection of Sanskrit manuscripts in the British Library. The first post introduced the Colebrooke family and the East India Company, and the second post focused on Colebrooke's manuscripts on Hindu law.

Works consulted
Bābūrāma (ed.), Mitākṣarā (Calcutta: Sanskrit Press, 1812).
Bābūrāma (ed.), Dāyabhāga, with the commentary of Śrīkṛṣṇatarkālaṃkāra (Calcutta: Sanskrit Press, 1813).
Bābūrāma (ed.), Kiratarjuniya, with the commentary of Mallinātha called Ghaṇṭāpatha (Calcutta: Sanskrit Press, 1814).
Colebrooke, Henry Thomas, (trans.), Two Treatises on the Hindu Law of Inheritance (Calcutta: Hindoostanee Press, 1810).
Colebrooke, Henry Thomas, Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration, from the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta and Bhàscara (London: John Murray, 1817).
Colebrooke, Thomas Edward, The Life of H. T. Colebrooke (London: Trübner, 1873).
Rocher, Rosanne and Rocher, Ludo, The Making of Western Indology: Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Company (London: Routledge, 2012).

Letter from the Government of Bengal to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, 31 Jan 1798. British Library, IOR/F/4/39/974.
Letter from William Carey to Fort William College Council, 4 May 1814 (Government of Bengal Proceedings 19 Jul 1814, No. 34). British Library, IOR/P/8/36.
Amarakoṣa. British Library, IO San 3162.
Bījagaṇita (chapter on algebra from Bhāskara’s Siddhāntaśiromaṇi). British Library, IOL San 871b.
Dhātupradīpa. British Library, IO San 434a. 
Mahābhārata. British Library, IO San 1771.
Vyavahārasiddhāntapīyūṣā. British Library, IO San 3143.

David Woodbridge, Provenance Researcher Sanskrit Collections (REAP pilot project 2023-2025)

This is the first in a series of five blog posts on the provenance of the Colebrooke Collection of Sanskrit manuscripts in the British Library.

Bust of Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765-1837), by Henry Weekes, commissioned by the Royal Asiatic Society in 1837. RAS 02.008 

‘I am commanded to offer you in the name of the Court their best thanks and acknowledgements for the present which you therein purport making to the Company of your collection of Oriental manuscripts, and to assure you of the high sense which they entertain of your obliging attention. The Court propose to set apart a portion of their library for the acception of these valuable manuscripts and to distinguish it by the name of the Colebrooke Collection.’ (Letter from the Court of Directors of the East India Company to Colebrooke, 24 April 1819. British Library, IOR/E/255, f 240).

The above is an extract from a letter that was sent to Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765-1837) by the East India Company’s Court of Directors in London, on 24 April 1819. Four years previously, Colebrooke had returned to Britain after thirty-two years in India. His career had been an impressive one, beginning on the lower rungs of the Company’s civil service and rising up eventually to become a member of the supreme council of the Government of Bengal.

However, what Colebrooke is most remembered for today is his scholarship. While in India, he held the position of professor of Sanskrit at the College of Fort William,  founded by the EIC in Calcutta in 1800. And for the nine years prior to his departure in 1815 he was the president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the pre-eminent forum for Europeans pursuing research into any branch of enquiry relating to India. Later, in 1823, he would found the Royal Asiatic Society in London, in an attempt to replicate something of that interest in Britain.

Colebrooke’s most tangible legacy is his collection of over two thousand Sanskrit manuscripts, which he brought back with him from India and donated to the EIC’s Library (later renamed the India Office Library, and now part of the British Library). The ‘Colebrooke Collection’ covers a wide range of subjects, including religion, philosophy, law, grammar, poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and botany, and has been a vital resource for students in Britain and beyond.

A page from the Mahabharata, one of the manuscripts in the Colebrooke Collection. British Library, IO San 1771.

But what is the story behind the formation of this important collection? In particular, how did Colebrooke come to be in India? What influenced his interests and choices as he formed his collection? And how did he find and acquire the manuscripts themselves? These questions will be examined in a series of blog posts, of which this first post, on the Colebrooke Family and the East India Company, will provide some background to Colebrooke’s arrival in India.

Even before Henry Thomas set off for Asia, the Colebrooke family had become closely associated with the East India Company. His father, Sir George Colebrooke (1729-1809), was a wealthy and prominent banker, and made investments in EIC shares. In 1764, he became one of the Company’s proprietors, the elite group of shareholders who owned enough stock to qualify for a vote to elect the members of the Court of Directors. These members, who met in the Company’s headquarters in London, were responsible for overseeing all of its operations. Sir George himself became a member in 1767, and served three terms as chairman in 1769, 1770, and 1772.

As chairman, Sir George defended the EIC against criticism from within Britain and attempts to introduce greater government control over its activities. This criticism stemmed from the growing power of the Company in India, where it had been fighting wars, making deals with local rulers, and taking control of areas of territory. Many in Britain believed the EIC had gone beyond the bounds of acceptable activity for a trading organisation, and were concerned by reports of corruption and abuse of power. Sir George successfully resisted calls for greater government control. However, during his third term as president, the Company experienced a major financial crisis and had to appeal to the government for relief, which was damaging for Sir George’s reputation. But worse was to come, as his own financial affairs rapidly deteriorated, leading ultimately to bankruptcy.

Henry's father Sir George Colebrooke was a prominent figure in British public life, and as the EIC foundered under his leadership he was the subject of attacks in the press. This cartoon is from an edition of the Oxford Magazine published in 1773. Sir George is depicted in the centre, kneeling before Lord North, the Prime Minister, while handing him a bag of money and pleading ‘Save us my Lord or we perish.’  British Museum, 1868,0808.10039. © The Trustees of the British Museum

It was in this context that Henry Thomas, along with his elder brother, Edward (1761-1838), set out for Asia to work for the East India Company. For someone who had occupied positions of considerable status, Sir George would have envisaged a more elevated future for his sons than a career in India. But in the family’s reduced situation, the EIC offered a potential path to restoring their fortunes. Opportunities were highly sought after, but their father’s previous service doubtless counted in the sons’ favour, and both obtained positions as writers, that is, administrators, in India.

Henry Thomas Colebrooke arrived in India in 1783. In the wake of its crisis ten years previously, the EIC had undergone a number of reforms, with an emphasis on improving the standards of its administration. Colebrooke had therefore arrived at a time of great change for the Company. Though his father’s reputation and the family’s situation had been greatly damaged, he had nevertheless been granted an opening in EIC employment. There was a need for competent administrators who were willing to familiarise themselves with local conditions and devise ways for the EIC to transform itself into a responsible government. This is the context in which Colebrooke embarked upon his career in the Company’s service.

The second blog post in this series on the provenance of the Colebrooke Collection will be on Colebrooke’s manuscripts on Hindu law.

Works Consulted
Buchan, P. Bruce, ‘The East India Company 1749-1800: The Evolution of a Territorial Strategy and the Changing Role of the Directors’, Business and Economic History, 23:1 (1994).
Rocher, Rosanne and Rocher, Ludo, The Making of Western Indology: Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Company (London: Routledge, 2012).
Letter from the Court of Directors of the East India Company to H. T. Colebrooke, 24 April 1819. British Library, IOR/E/255, f 240.

David Woodbridge, Provenance Researcher Sanskrit Collections (REAP pilot project 2023-2025)

The Lalitavistara is a Mahayana sutra (Sanskrit sutra or Pali sutta, meaning text, discourse, canonical scripture) about the life story of Gautama Buddha, covering the time of his descent from Tushita heaven until his first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath, Varanasi, India. It narrates how the Buddha manifested in this world and gained awakening.


The Lalitavistara, with five Dhyani Buddhas on the wooden cover, Patan, Nepal, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, cover

The title Lalitavistara has been translated as “the play in full”. It consists of 27 chapters and is written in Sanskrit and a vernacular dialect also known as 'Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit'. Portions of the text date back to the earliest days of the Buddhist tradition, but it is not known when the Lalitavistara was finally edited (Winternitz 1933: 252-3). Both the style and language of the text suggest a compilation: the work includes a continuous narrative in Sanskrit prose, with metrical passages in mixed Sanskrit, and the topics of the prose and verse parts often overlap. The point of view also changes occasionally from the third person to the first person, where the Buddha himself narrates the events. It is therefore believed that the Lalitavistara is not the work of a single author, but an anonymous compilation in which very early and more recent passages stand side by side.


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, Queen Maya dreams of a white beautiful elephant entering her womb, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f.36r

In the Lalitavistara the miraculous element in the legend of the Buddha’s conception and birth is overemphasised, compared to accounts in other Buddhist schools. There are also a number of concepts and stories that appear in the Lalitavistara for the first time that are missing in similar Pali texts. One is in chapter 10, recounting the first day of the young Buddha as a Bodhisattva, while chapters 12 and 13 also contain episodes which are missing in other biographies of the Buddha. The last chapter (27) praises the Lalitavistara itself and enumerates the merits one gains by honouring this text (Winternitz 1938: 251, 252).


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, Queen Maya giving birth to the Buddha, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f. 73v

The Lalitavistara, like other post-canonical Buddhist literary works written in hybrid and pure Sanskrit, represents the Buddha not just as a sage, but as an extraordinary being “adorned with the 32 marks of the Great Man”. The Buddha’s beneficial power, compassion, and omnipotence is stressed in these texts, where this marvellous being is depicted as a living miracle: upon seeing him the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the sick are cured, and so on. Everywhere he lives he is worshipped and respected by the kings, the wealthy, the gods and all other beings (Lamotte1988: 645-6). In the Lalitavistara, the Buddha says that when he was born, this trichiliocosm (a universe of a billion worlds) trembled, and all the gods bowed their heads to his feet and paid homage to him; he is superior to all the gods, he is the God of Gods, but he will still follow his worldly customs (Lamotte 1988: 624).

The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, the monks crossing the Ganges on a boat, while the Buddha flew to the other side of the river, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f.221r

The oldest copies of the Lalitavistara date from the end of the second century or the beginning of the third century, and it can be assumed that the original composition (or compilation) dates from the beginning of the Christian era. Although the Lalitavistara summarises a series of the jatakas (stories of the former existences of the Buddha), the biography remains incomplete, as it doesn’t mention the Buddha’s first return to Kapilavastu (the principal city of the Śākya clan) or his missionary trips, and there is no account of his demise. The Lalitavistara ends with setting in motion of the Wheel of the Dharma, which perhaps suggests that the narrative aims to tell the story of the complete awakening of a bodhisattva in his last existence (Lamotte1988: 654-5).

The Lalitavistara sutra has inspired elaborate artwork in different parts of Asia, and the themes of the text can be seen in temple art in Gandhara, and at the Borobudur temple complex in Java.


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, the Buddha conquering all demonic congregation, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f.195v

There are three complete and one abridged manuscript copies of the Lalitavistara at the British Library, all from the collections of the India Office Library. The copy most often written about, and illustrated above, is I.O San 688, part of the B.H. Hodgson collection, which is adorned with coloured illustrations depicting scenes of the life of the Buddha. According to the colophon, the text was inscribed in Patan, Nepal, in 1803 by the Buddhist Pandit Amrtananda for Captain W.D. Knox, who is described as someone whose “liberality and other virtues surpassed the Hindu divinities and proved him to be an Avatara of Buddha”. An illustration at the end of the manuscript shows the presentation of the volume (ralitavisara) to Captain Knox, the first British resident in Nepal and an officer in the army of the East India Company, depicted in the military attire of the period and holding a prayer wheel.


The Lalitavistara, written in Sanskrit in Devanagari script on paper, with a painting of Pandit Amrtananda and Captain Knox. Patan, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, f. 253v

The same two figures appear with the Bodhisattva Manjushri (representing transcendent wisdom) and auspicious symbols on the back cover of the manuscript.

Pandit Amrtananda and Captain Knox depicted on the wooden cover of the Lalitavistara, Patan, 1803. British Library, I.O San 688, back cover

The two other manuscripts of the Lalitavistara in the British Library (I.O San 341 and I.O San 2880) are copies of the 1803 manuscript given to Capt. Knox described above (I.O. San 688).

The manuscript I.O San 341 was made for Henry Thomas Colebrooke – a Sanskrit scholar, orientalist, and Chairman of the East India Company – in the 19th century, who wrote at the beginning: “The Lalita Vistara ... Knox”. This copy is also annotated on the first folios, but it is not illustrated. There is a blank page on which is written in a second hand: śodha ṭīkā para (correct according to the tika, i.e. commentary or gloss), and there are a few corrections in the same hand. This manuscript is part of the H.T. Colebrooke collection.

The abridged copy (I.O San 2575), which is named 'a Buddha Purana', was copied in the 19th C. It is part of the collection of Colin Mackenzie (1753-1821) and was copied by one of his pandits. The manuscript comprises just a table of contents to the Lalitavistara, and contains a note by Colebrooke at the beginning, which reads: 'An abridgment of the Lalita Vistara, a Purana, containing the history of the life of Buddha. The original was brought from Nepal by Capt Knox. This abridgement by a pandit in Mr. Colebrooks’s service, contains the whole substance of the voluminous original.'


Note by Colebrooke at the beginning of a manuscript containing a list of contents of the Lalitavistara, 19th century. British Library, I.O San 2575

Bibliography
Igunma, Jana, and San San May, eds. Buddhism: Origins, Traditions and Contemporary Life. London: The British Library, 2019.
“Lalitavistara | Life Story, Biography & Legends | Britannica.” 4 July 2024 . 
Lamotte, Etienne. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Louvain-la-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste, 1988.
‘The Play in Full / 84000 Reading Room’. n.d. 84000 Translating The Words of The Buddha. Accessed 4 July 2024. 
Winternitz, Moriz. A History of Indian Literature. 2, Buddhist Literature and Jaina Literature. Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1933.

Azadeh Shokouhi, Sanskrit cataloguer

The first part of this blog post on the Gitagovinda, a 12th-century Sanskrit poem by Jayadeva devoted to the Hindu god Krishna, explored the contents of the poem and its allegorical interpretations. This post will focus on the region in eastern India which gave birth to the Gitagovinda, and the role of the Gitagovinda in the ritual of the Jagannatha temple at Puri.

The region known as Orissa (now Odisha) in eastern India has been the cradle of various traditions and religions. In the 6th century BCE, it had associations with Buddhism and Jainism. For centuries, both these traditions received patronage from the rulers of the region. From the accounts of the 3rd and 4th centuries CE it can be inferred that as the result of contact between the royal families in Odisha and Sri Lanka, there were mutual influences on religion through the local tribes who worshipped their own deities. The new settlers Sanskritised the names of these deities and worshipped the local gods, but did not change their iconographic features, as a sign of respect to the religious sentiment of the local dwellers. Even Mahayana Buddhists incorporated some aspects of the local pantheon into their belief system during the 5th and 6th centuries CE.

Avatars of Vishnu. Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with black ink illustrations, 18th century. Or. 13502, fols. 4v, 5r

Throughout the 4th-7th centuries CE different dynasties in the region worshipped Vishnu in various forms, like Narayana or Madhava, and certain royals, although claiming to be devout worshippers of Gokarneshvara (Shiva), granted charters in favor of the god Narayana, or even a village to the god Vishnu (Mishra 1971: 7, 8). Such grants of land were made by the rulers to Brahmins or to temples. Compared to royal families, elite groups such as merchants, military chiefs and nobles were more influential in activities such as temple building between the 6th and the 12th centuries (Singh 1994: 6, 296). It was in such an environment that the cult of Jagannatha emerged and developed.

In the 12th century, Vishishtadvaita vada, the Vaishnava devotional sect from South India, was influential in Odisha. According to Vaishnava traditional accounts, Ramanuja, the great Vedanta philosopher and one of the most important exponents of the Vaishnava tradition, visited Puri in Odisha in the early 12th century and established a school in the city. Having met and influenced the king of Puri, Ramanuja introduced the ritual of Vaishnavism to the Jagannatha temple. Consequently, Jagannatha has since been worshipped as the supreme form of Vishnu (Stoller Miller 1977: 5). As a result of this neo-Vaishnavism being merged with the remnants of other traditions in the region, Vaishnavite deities were worshipped in a Buddhist Tantric way, with an admixture of Brahmanical ritualism.

Deities on the first folio of the manuscript, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with black ink illustrations, 18th century. Or. 13502, f. 3r

Originating in eastern India in the 12th century, the Gitagovinda soon spread across the whole of the Indian subcontinent. By the 15th century, the Gitagovinda had already become part of the ritual of the Jagannatha temple at Puri, whose construction started in the 10th century and was completed in the 12th century. Because of their role in the nightly worship of Krishna, the songs of the Gitagovinda have been chanted in the Jagannatha temple for more than seven hundred years and are revered throughout Odisha. A key aspect of Odissi, a classical dance originating from Odisha, is the performance of these songs as the art form was developed through the religious art of temple dancers who dance Gitagovinda songs in praise of Jagannatha.


The Jagannatha temple with the three deities, depicted across all 12 folios of palmleaf, in a manuscript of Gitagovinda, with Sanskrit text in minute Oriya script. British Library, Or. 14110.

A unique manuscript of the Gitagovinda (Or. 14110), a copy of unknown date, was acquired by the British Library in 1982. It is a stitched palm-leaf folding book consisting of 12 leaves altogether with the text and illustrations only on the obverse. The poem’s Sanskrit verses are written in minute Oriya script, and there are also Sanskrit mantras written in Oriya script throughout the text.

This manuscript stands out for its format, layout, and artwork, because the text and accompanying illustrations are arranged in the shape of the façade of the Jagannatha temple at Puri in Odisha. There are three figures in the center, the deities Jagannatha, Subhadra (the younger sister of gods Krishna and Balarama also known as Balabhadra) and Balabhadra (the elder brother of Krishna). This trio of deities is worshipped at the Jagannatha temple.

Detail of the three deities in the Jagannatha temple, in a manuscript of Gitagovinda, with Sanskrit text in minute Oriya script. British Library, Or. 14110.

As mentioned, the history of the Jagannatha temple shows an amalgam of various influences and traditions. According to the 15th-century poet and scholar, Saraladasa, the cult of Jagannatha was identified with the cult of the Trimurti, the three supreme Hindu deities: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). Saraladasa equates Subhadra with Brahma. But since the Jagannatha temple is still dedicated to the cult of Hari-Hara (Vishnu-Shiva) and the worship of Sri Vidya (the Goddess), Subhadra is suggested to stand for Shakti (Hindu paramount goddess and consort of Shiva) who was worshipped in the form of Ekanamsa. The name Ekanamsa was changed to Subhadra, and consequently the goddess lost her position as the principal deity (Starza 1993: 63, 64). Balabhadra is sometimes considered as Shiva and sometimes as Ananta or the serpent, therefore representing the Naga cult, i.e. snake worship. But in essence, he is one of the deities in the Puranas (sacred literature of the Hindus which serves as a popular encyclopedic collection of myths, legends and genealogy) (Mishra 1971: 157).

Avatars of Vishnu, Gitagovinda, Sanskrit in Oriya script, with coloured illustrations, 18th century. IO San 3508, f. 5r

Most Vaishnavites, particularly Krishnaites, consider Jagannatha to be an abstract representation or avatar of Krishna or Vishnu. It has been suggested that Jagannatha may have originally been a local deity of an unknown tribe, whose worship was later incorporated into Brahmanism. When this new god was introduced, he was regarded as another manifestation of Vishnu.

Further reading:

Mishra, Kanhu Charan. The Cult of Jagannātha. [1st ed.]. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1971.
Mukherjee, Prabhat. 1981. The History of Medieval Vaishnavism in Orissa. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
Singh, Upinder. Kings, Brāhmaṇas, and Temples in Orissa: An Epigraphic Study AD 300-1147. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1994.
Starza, Olgierd Maria Ludwik. The Jagannatha Temple at Puri: Its Architecture, Art and Cult. Studies in South Asian Culture. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993. 
Stoler Miller, Barbara. Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva’s Gitagovinda. UNESCO Collection of Representative Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.

Azadeh Shokouhi, Sanskrit cataloguer

Acknowledgment: Special thanks to Dr Arani Ilankuberan, the Head of South Asia collections, and to Pasquale Manzo, Lead Curator South Asia Collections and Curator of the Sanskrit collections, for their comments and suggestions.