A Catalogue Raisonné of the Oriental Manuscripts of the Library of the (Late) College, Fort Saint George ...., 3 vols.

Madras: Fort St. George Gazette Press, 1857 - 1862. First Edition.. Contemporary three quarter leather & marbled boards.. Good set; bindings are scuffed but strong; title pages are dusty; small inst. ink stamp on verso of title and last leaf of each volume; gum label on spine; circulation record on rear pastedowns; 2 inserted leaves in vol. 3 are somewhat smaller.. Royal 8vo, I - xxviii, [2], [v] - viii, v, [1], xxii, [2], [1] - 678 pp. + folding plate; II - [2], xxiii - xciii, [3], v, [1], [vii] - xiv, [1] - 902 pp.; III - [6], liv, [4], [1] - 802 pp.

An immense work that comprises some 2500 pages published over a five year period. Taylor annotated most entries. Some contain comments on the physical condition of the manuscript. The Library owed its collection to three sources. The first was the collection of Col. Colin Mackenzie the Surveyor General of India. His collections, the work of a life time, have a confused history that is covered in detail in the introduction to the first volume. The second source was the accumulated manuscripts library of the distinguished scholar and linguist Charles P Brown of the Madras Civil Service. Finally, the third source was the East India House Library. The subjects encompassed by the collection include drama, philosophy, erotica, grammar, mathematics, lexicography, law, logic, devotion and religion, and science. The introductory essays to each volume repay the attention by providing little known facts based on private memoirs and pertinent testimony buried in the mass of un-indexed published official testimony before government committees in India and the UK. The third and final volume of 1862 carries a slight variant of the imprint: Madras, Printed at the United Scottish Press. The College of Fort St. George was founded in 1812 and its press enjoyed active patronage from the Madras government. It “ ... represented a new institutional patron of Indian literature and played an important role in the publication of Tamil and Telugu classics. Described as a ‘marshalling yard’, the College brought together the British Orientalists, native scholars and civil servants in the study of the languages and literatures of south India. It appointed head masters to teach the indigenous languages to the junior civil servants. Apart from the instruction of languages
of south India, the College also taught Hindu and Muhammadan law. The College is said to have spearheaded the revival of letters by actively promoting the learning and teaching of languages of south India and printing the grammatical and literary works.” Four pages in volume two have a portion of the blank fore-edge margin cut away (no loss). OCLC cites six locations. See V Rajesh, "Patrons and Networks of Patronage ...." in Social Scientist, vol. 39, #3/4, 2011, p.67.