The Catalogue of the Tibetan Texts in the Bihar Research Society. Patna Volume I (Miscellaneous Series) An Old and Rare Book

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A look at the valuable collection of the Tibetan manuscripts preserved in the library of the Bihar Research Society, Patna, reminds us of one of the great intellectual giants that this century kas produced, Mahapandita Rahula Sankrtyayana is a name to conjure with in the history of Indology, which will be remembered by posterity with profound gratitude and reverence Here was a man who was more learned than most learned of the scholars, more adventurous than a daring general, a ceaseless seeker of truth, and a torch-bearer of Indian culture, whose only love was knowledge, whose only companion was his unbending soul and undeterred courage. A Hindu by birth, but a Bauddha Sanyast by Karma, Mahapandita was one of the few personalities of modern India who has left ineffaceable impress of his genius in the realm of our intellectual life.

The story of the collection of these Tibetan manuscripts is a thrilling romance in itself that reveals the nerve-wrecking adventure of the man who widened our historical outlook and enriched our cultural heritage by bringing to light the invaluable hidden treasure so long forgotten and unknown to the world of letters. The discovery marks the beginning of a glorious era of awakening, the era of genuine thirst for knowledge and research in the field of cultural relations subsisting between this ancient land and our great neighbours like Tibet and Ceylon. This is the story of that eternal urge to know the unknown, to fathom the depths of mysteries, to make the neglected, tongueless, scattered heaps of sheaves tell our past and to unearth the existence of isolated grandeur of the precious fragments of our composite culture lying hidden here, there and everywhere.

The restless soul in Rahula Sankętyayana kept him moving from place to place in search of truth and knowledge. It was in this state of ceaseless wandering that the fire of Buddha's teaching caught his imagination completely and he at once decided to go to Ceylon to learn the language and literature of Buddhism by coming into first hand con- tact with the teachers there. In 1920 he went over to Ceylon and joined the Vidyalankara Parivena. There he learnt Pali while teaching Sanskrit and after having mastered the Pali Agamas and their Atthakatha Commentaries obtained the much sought-for title of Tripijakacarya, It was really a great moment in the life of this celebrated scholar.

and also in the history of Indology, for it gave him a break by providing further incentive to his urge for knowledge which marked the beginnings of a phase that gradually unfolded a sealed book to the world and a vast hidden treasure to posterity. It was now that he felt within the depth of his soul an insatiable urge to master the literature of Sanskrit Buddhism by going straight to Tibet in 1930 and staying there for fifteen months. These fifteen months constitute the most remarkable period of his life during which he received his initiation as a monk from Mahapandita Dharmananda Kosambi, mastered the Tibetan language and brought back with him at the risk of his life the treasure containing originals and photo-copies of valuable Sanskrit manuscripts ladden on 22 mules- a miraculous achievement which atonce sky-rocketted his reputation amongst orientalists in India and Europe, who hailed him as the greatest explorer of the age.

A versatile genius working on many fronts, an indefatigable writer and author contributing to various fields of Sanskrit and Buddhist literature and a great champion of Hindi whose beginnings he pushed back by four hundred years by pointing out the value of the early Apa. bhramsa works of the Siddha Acaryas Rahulaji was undoubtedly the greatest literary genius of the age, whose pinnacle of glory rests on the Sanskrit Bubdhist literature that he brought from the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, Samye and others. And, in the best tradition of a true scholar, the discoverer fulfilled his obligation to his valuable discovery in two ways (i) by editing the texts and (ii) by writing tikas and translations on them.