Scholars Welcomed to BRC

As word spreads about our catalogue and facilities for scholars and students, we are beginning to receive a growing number of guests eager to take advantage of the BRC for their studies.

In the summer of 2011, we hosted several scholars doing research for their Ph.D. thesis. Although the BRC is an ISKCON project, it is open to any scholar, student or Vaisnava from any organization who wishes to take advantage of our facilities for their studies.

The following are some of their testimonials:

Dr. William Deadwyler, Ph.D. (Ravindra Svarupa dasa):

I am much impressed, inspired and grateful for the amazing progress of the BRC. This is the manifestation of the desire of Srila Prabhupada and it is wonderful to see it…We are seeing the beginning of what will be a vast and ever-growing endeavour.

Prof. Ashlin Aronin, Wesleyan Uni., CT:

The Bhaktivedanta Research Library was an invaluable asset for my research. I wish I had known about it sooner!

Prof. Ruby Sain, Yadavpur University:

It is impossible to collect such treasure within such a short span of time. … This collection is indeed marvellous for future generations of India and other countries. I must congratulate all those who are working so hard to make this library vibrant.

Prof. Lucian Wong, Oxford University:

The library collection is extremely impressive. Many, many gems. Library staff were extremely helpful and friendly. Overall, a wonderful research experience. I definitely plan to return.

BRC Manuscripts Mission Began in the Birthplace of Srila Isvara Puripad

The first mission of BRC's Manuscript Team was in July of 2011 to Kumara Hatta, nowadays generally known as Halisahar. This is the birthplace of Srila Isvara Puri, the spiritual master of Lord Caitanya.

temple built in Halishar, 1936

Smt. Bharati Roy with Sri Kishori Dasa Babaji, the son of the first pujari, and Janakaraj Das, BRC Manager

deities worshiped by Sri Isvar Puripad

Here’s the first manuscript we viewed. It was about the glories of Srimati Radharani. According to the notation, it was written in 1708 Sakabda, or 1790 AD-over 300 years old! The paper is cotton based hand made parchment.

Srila Prabhupada mentions it in Caitanya Caritamrta Adi 9.11:

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura writes in his Anubhasya, “Sri Isvara Puri was a resident of Kumara-hatta, where there is now a railroad station known as Kamarhatta. Nearby there is another station, named Halisahara, which belongs to the Eastern Railway. This railway runs from the eastern section of Calcutta.”

…

Isvara Puri pleased his spiritual master by service, and by the blessings of his spiritual master he became such a great personality that Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted him as His spiritual master.

Srila Isvara Puri was the spiritual master of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, but before initiating Lord Caitanya he went to Navadvipa and lived for a few months in the house of Gopinatha Acarya. At that time Lord Caitanya became acquainted with him, and it is understood that he served Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by reciting his book, Krsna-lilamrta. This is explained in Sri Caitanya-bhagavata, Adi-khanda, Chapter Eleven.

To teach others by example how to be a faithful disciple of one’s spiritual master, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, visited the birthplace of Isvara Puri at Kumara-hatta and collected some earth from his birth site. This He kept very carefully, and He used to eat a small portion of it daily. This is stated in the Caitanya-bhagavata, Adi-khanda, Chapter Seventeen. It has now become customary for devotees, following the example of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, to go there and collect some earth from that place.

Mission for Manuscripts Update, March 2011

Our research team consists of Smt. Bharati Roy and her assistant Ashish. Bharati began working with ISKCON scholars in the early 1980s, doing extensive research for the Institute for Vaisnava Studies (IVS) headed by Garuda dasa (Dr. Graham Schweig) in Bengal and Jaipur, and also translation work for various individual scholars. She has worked for the last year as the BRC librarian but field research is where her heart is. As she told us at the inception of the manuscript program, "I am boiling with enthusiasm!"

They began their work in their home town of Halisahar, which happens to be the birthplace of Srila Isvara Puri, the spiritual master of Lord Caitanya. The temple of Caitanya Doba is said to be the actual site of his appearance.

The mahant of the temple is Sri Kishori Baba. He was friendly and only too happy to give us access to his small but precious collection of manuscripts. Bharati and Ashish photographed 16 different works over two visits. You read about this visit and see photographs of this place here LINK

From there, in 17 days they visited another ten places and photographed almost 112 manuscripts, shooting nearly 7,000 images. They visited libraries, sripats, mathas and private owners.

As well as photographing the manuscripts they also filled out an information sheet on each place recording Deities, custodians, number of mss, and other relevant information for the use of students and scholars in the future.

Here’s a few of the places visited so far:

Krishnanagara

This is Smt. Manasi Raya, widow of late Ashimananda Raya of Krishnanagara and descendent of the royal family there.

She is holding a palm leaf tal mss of the Markandeya Purana.

This is the only mss remaining from a large collection, since her predecessors thought their old collections to be useless and thus threw them in the Ganga. This one was preserved as a family heirloom. Such occurrences are becoming increasingly common and that’s why we are acting now as Srila Prabhupada said before it is too late.

Manasi mataji also had a very old printed Srimad Bhagavatam with some nice illustrations in it which we estimate to be at least 150 yrs. old. You can see the damage caused by insects on the left cover.

Sripata of Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura, Denuda in Bardaman

On the altar is a wood and glass box containing a mss that is said to be the original Caitanya Bhagavat by Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura.

With it there is a thin strip with what the owners claim is the handwriting of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself:

We were allowed to photograph these from the outside of the box because, following an attempt to steal it by a young man disguised as a Hindu sadhu, the box was sealed and even the current pujari can’t open it.

Gauranga Tal Mandira, Navadwip

This temple also has a glass box on its altar:

Within is a mss of the Srimad Bhagavatam written on tree bark by Srila Gadadhara Pandit. With it is another tal said to be comments written by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself (hence the name of the temple.)

Haribol Kutir Navadwip

This is an original printer's block for making a map of Gauramanadalabhumi, Lord Caitanya’s travels around Bharat varsa:

They were created and used by Haridasa Dasa,  the scholar who discovered the mss of Sri Krsna Lila Stava by Srila Sanatan Goswami after it had been missing for approximately 300 years. These maps were printed in Haridasa Dasa’s book Gaudiya Vaisnava Abhidhana in the 1940s. They depict the travels of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu around India, and also all the important holy places in Gaura mandala.

Our researchers found them lying on a heap of garbage when they visited the matha. Now because of their intervention they are being kept carefully in the temple. We were allowed to photograph many mss. here also.

Srikhanda Chittaranjan, Pathagar

Some places do value their heritage and here’s an example of some well kept manuscripts that we were allowed to photograph. Here’s Sri Uttam Sengupta, the librarian of Srikhanda Chittaranjan Pathagar, Bardhaman where the trust of Narahari Sarkar Thakura’s Sripata has donated these mss.

Sripata of Srinivasa Acarya, Yajigram

Likewise in Yajigram, where the ISKCON administered Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust has done renovation work we found some well preserved mss for our records.

Santipur Sahitya Parishad, Santipur

This is Sri Susanta Matt the Secretary of the Sahitya Parishad Santipur.

He was happy to allow us to photograph many of their mss. Of course not all the mss are of Gaudiya Vaisnava works, there are many on various other methods of worship, nyaya etc. and here we found some copies of various works by Sripad Sankaracarya.

We photographed some because Srila Prabhupada said in Juhu Bombay in 1976 that we should establish a library of all the works of the acaryas, including Sankaracarya. When I expressed surprise because Lord Caitanya warns in Chaitanya Caritmrita that anyone who reads Shankara’s bhasya is doomed, he told me, “No, we can read to know what is their arguments, to defeat them.”


After this intensive work Bharati and Ashish, under careful guidance of our new head librarian Acyuta prabhu, spent the month of March at the BRC library in Kolkata building up a catalogue of the materials. All the information gathered will be entered into our new website and library software in the coming months. Thus everything will be made available for researchers to take advantage of.

Cultural Ecocide and It's Threat to Vedic Wisdom

The rapid loss of India’s great storehouse of wisdom, passed down for thousands of years via carefully copied manuscripts, is of great concern, both within India and abroad.

In January 2011 at the Jaipur Literary Festival, noted Prof. Sheldon Pollock, a renowned scholar of Sanskrit and Indian literary history and general editor of Harvard’s Murty Classical Library, warned that in literary terms, India is on the verge of what he termed a potentially cataclysmic cultural ecocide.

Giving the keynote address he said, It is now entirely legitimate to ask, if within two generations there will be anyone in India who will have the capacity of reading Indian literature produced before 1800. I have a feeling that that number is slowly approaching a statistical zero.’

Of India’s ancient languages, it is only classic Sanskrit that is not endangered. Prof. Pollock’s concern is over the loss of the treasury of literature that already exists and has been preserved over thousands of years. The scholar, who teaches at Columbia University, says he has become gravely concerned over 40 years of coming and going from India.

"Over the 35 or 40 years coming to India…it’s been the same in classical Assamese, it’s the same in Bangla, it’s the same in Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya and all the way down the long list," he said.

Srila Prabhupada expressed the same sentiments in 1972 when he instructed his disciples to go to Birnagar, the birthplace of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and photograph the original writings of the Thakura.

Srila Prabhupada with Lalita Prasada Thakura, Guru dasa, Shyamasundara in Bir Nagar in 1972:

[To: Acyutananda-12 June, 1972] 

I have asked Yadubara to come there to Birnagar from Bombay for photographing all of the manuscripts in the possession of Lalita Prashad Thakura page by page very completely before it is too late. The pages are in very decrepit condition, so best thing is to request Lalita Prashad if we may take care of them by treating them against insects and storing them in a tight, dry storage place where they may be preserved for future generations of Vaisnavas to see the actual handwriting and words of such great saintly persons. 

Treat this matter very seriously and thoroughly, and take all precautions to protect this wonderful boon of literatures forever. Yadubara may photograph every page, never mind Bengali or English or any other language, and later we shall see where to send the copies to different places.

These statements have provided our inspiration to try our humble best to protect our Vaisnava heritage for future generations.

Srila Prabhupad with Lalita Prasad Thakur (left) and disciples

New Staff Appointments

We are very happy to announce the appointment of Sriman Acyuta dasa as our new head librarian. Acyuta prabhu has been involved from the BRC’'s inception but now he has made himself available for full time work. 

Acyuta Prabhu is pictured at far left

Acyuta brings with him 28 years of devotional service. He has been engaged in research for almost 20 years in the major libraries and cultural/academic institutions of Kolkata. He has studied Library Science and all its connected subjects in two Indian universities (IGNOU and ICFAI), and has his own personal library of over 11,000 books. He has acquired expertise in the use of software and web resources connected with books & library science and his addition to the team is a very welcome plus. Beginning January 1, 2011 he will focus on setting up our computer system, professional library software and website.




We have also hired a new assistant for the library, Ashish Chakroborty. Ashish is a B. Sc. and is engaged in scanning the many hundreds of books in our library at a current rate of about 400 pages per day. This is about the limit for the simple book scanner we have and our plan is to apply for a grant to upgrade to a professional semi-automated model that can do 700 pages per hour.

Bharati Roy began working with ISKCON scholars in the early 1980s, doing extensive research for the Institute for Vaisnava Studies (IVS) headed by Garuda dasa (Dr. Graham Schweig) in Bengal and Jaipur, and also translation work for various individual scholars. She has worked for the last year as the BRC librarian but field research is where her heart is.

BRC Operations Manager Janakaraja Prabhu with Smt. Bharati Roy and Asis Chakroborty