river mahatmyas

[gruenendahl]

On 12 Mar 2007 at 15:14, JN wrote:

> i am collecting information on river mahatmyas. i am especially interested  
> to know for which rivers mahatmyas exist.

Since secondary literature on this topic will be rather scarce, at least compared to 
existing sources, a more rewarding way seems to me to start from manuscript 
catalogues. Several strategies come to mind here:

If you are interested in mahatmyas on a particular river, look up the name in the 
New Catalogus Catalogorum (as far as it takes us). A glance at the entries under 
"Ganga-" will give an impression of the flood of titles one can expect. 

For parts not covered by the NCC, and for rivers of a particular area, you will have 
to work your way through individual catalogues. For a regional survey, start with a 
manuscript catalogue of that area. For South India, you might try, e.g., the 
"Mahatmya" sections of the  multi-volume catalogue of the Government Oriental 
Manuscripts Library, Madras, or the respective volumes of the Mysore catalogues; 
for Bengal see H.P. Sastri's catalogue of the Asiatic Society collection, and so on, 
ad infinitum ... 

Whichever way one approaches this, one is likely to be drowned pretty soon, I 
guess.

Good luck!
Reinhold Grünendahl


********************************************************************

Dr. Reinhold Gruenendahl
Niedersaechsische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek
Fachreferat sued- und suedostasiatische Philologien
(Dept. of Indology)

37070 Göttingen, Germany
Tel (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 52 83
Fax (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 23 61
gruenen at mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de

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