More Copies of Sahib Kaul’s Sri Vidya Nitya Paddhati have been found – besides the two we did last time.
Thanks to Subject Tagging, Items digitized exclusively since Last Newsletter for the 23rd News Letter can be selectively seen in this Filtered View:
With this Issue the Entire Almira 25 is over and as evident from the Filtered List above most Texts were related to Agama Shastra.
Our Digitizations of Shelf-1 Almira 24 have started and this shelf is mostly Vedic Texts.
In Lucknow, thanks to a Sanskrit Activist – who doesn’t want to be identified – we have got access to the Collection of a Deceased Scholar of Vyakarana which has mostly very old Books occupying 10 packed Almiras.
The following Account will be dedicated to books from this Center.
The Oldest from the 3 Almiras we have examined so far is this Edition of Harsha Charita printed at Vidya Vilas Press, Benares in 1880 ( 1936 V.E ) , by the Great Patron of Oriental Learning our dear Maharaja Ranbir Singh-ji with the following Self-description
श्रीमन्महाराजाधिराज जम्बू-काश्मीरतिब्बताद्यनेकादेशाधीश प्रभुवर श्रीमहाराज रणवीर सिंह बहादुरजी की आज्ञानुसार यह हर्ष चरित महाकाव्य विद्या विलास नामक मुद्रा यंत्रालय में शिब्बामल्ल के अधिकार से मुद्रित संवत् १९३६ ज्यैष्ठ प्र ६
These days I am in New Delhi and besides petitioning/liasing (with several Individuals, Bureaucrats,Ministers, Digitization Houses/Archivists ) advocating Open Access/Free Availabilty of all Govt Digital Initiatives/Cultural Archives ( NMM, IGNCA, AIR, DD Archives all belong to the Net not the Private Cloud/ and in some Cases CDs/DVDs, ie Humans not Machines, Open Doors not Locked Mansions, Democratization of Cultural Information not the oligarchy of barely Literate Computer Operators hanging over there Computers/almiras of stacked CDs); I will be attending the IGNCA organized Abhinavagupta Millenium Celeberations on 15th-17th Dec 2016. I encourage all to attend this Conference where some of the best minds of the World are congregating. I will be carrying my eBook/eManuscript Data for sharing with anyone interested.
Yesterday, I was very fortunate to visit the premises of Rekhta.org in Noida – a very vibrant Office not least the Man behind the endeavour Shri Sanjay Shroff. Rekhta Staff very kindly showed me there godown of Books which is a few thousands of mostly Urdu and some Persian and Hindi/Sanskrit Books.
The Hindi/Sanskrit Section were exclusively Naval Kishore Press Donations. Of the 5-6 packed Almiras, no more than 100 unique items exist as most books are multiple copies.
Some quick pictures of the Naval Kishore Hindi/Sanskrit Collection I managed to snap can be seen below:
This one book really caught my attention a Hindi Translation and Tika on the Guru Grantha Sahib which was very graciously digitized on the Spot:
The FB Post with musings can be read here.
I saw some Vedantic Translations by Rai Bahadur Zalim Singh, that were other than his works we encountered in Srinagar.
Rekhta has invited me to spend few hours in there godown and pick each unique title from the Devanagari Collection – which they will then digitize as well – something they didnt have in there Agenda for the Near Future but a much appreciated gesture towards me and my Comprehensive Digitization of Naval Kishore Publications Project.
Hope to see everyone at IGNCA Premises, New Delhi
eGangotri Digital Preservation Trust 
Dear Chetan
Thank you so much for uploading such High quality MSS .I would suggest you that you kindly upload the MSS which are there in other parts of INDIA also . Now a days Foreigners are more paid more attention In libraries like sampurnanada , Asciatic ,Saraswati Mahal in south and all . If we indian’s went there for study of some MSS then we are told to show our Research Profile . People like you are taking so Much pain in digitizing these . This is just Marvelous . The Librarian of Sampurnanda ask every candidate to take admission then he will allow to see the MSS . Anyways you continue your marvelous work . May God help you in all the stages .
Regards
Sidheswar Sharma