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Manuscripts are windows to the pulsating and rich cultural tradition of a country. In a diverse country like India that has been subject to several invasions and foreign influences, the composite culture in the eastern part of India, is evident in the rare manuscripts that have been so faithfully preserved in a village by people belonging to both faiths, Hindus and Muslims, devoted to the Vaishnav saint, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and which have been painstakingly documented in the `Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Bangla Manuscripts at Sripata Srikhanda in Chaintanya Mahaprabhu`s tradition` by Dr Syed Tanveer Nasreen and Dr Kamal Kishor Mishra. This catalogue is a rare collection and an art historian`s delight. The catalogue thus provides valuable information on Vaishnav religious text, Vaishnav grammar and Vaishnav literature from the tradition of Gauranga Mahaprabhu from eastern India prevalent during the medieval period of Indian history. Shovana Narayan, Eminent Kathak Guru and distinguished Author This descriptive catalogue of Sanskrit Bangla manuscripts in Chittaranjan Pathamandir at Sripata-Srikhanda in West Bengal provides a key to unlock the theory and practice of traditional life sustaining knowledge systems, genealogy of their exponents, contours of their mindscape, patterns of patronage and cross pollination of classical and vernacular scripts in 18th & 19th Century Bengal. It provides a window into the intellectual ferment and devotional surge, incited by the recollection and recapitulation of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Bhakti movement, spearheaded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the six Goswamis and their theological and emotional legatees. The catalogue, edited by Dr. Kamal Kishor Mishra & Dr. Syed Tanveer Nasreen, is a valuable contribution to research on Bengal Renascences. Dr. K.K. Chakravarty, Member Secretary and Trustee, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Art
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Pages : 268
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