The German Orientalists' Day
By U. N. Ghoshal
Summary
The German Orientalists’ Day, held in Munich (October 2-4, 1924), featured a session on Iranian and East Asian studies, presided over by Professors Liders, Geiger, and Franke. Prof. Liders discussed the canonical and non-canonical poetry of the Sarvastivadins, highlighting progress in revising Sanskrit manuscripts from Turfan. He demonstrated through textual citations and translation errors that both Pali and Sanskrit texts trace back to an Ardha-Magadhi original. Meanwhile, the Maharaja of Baroda, Dr. Sir Sayaji Rao Gaekwad, a patron of Sanskrit, established a Sanskrit section at the Central Library in 1914, initiated a search for manuscripts, and launched the Gaekwad Oriental Series to publish rare Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Apabhramsa texts. He appointed C. D. Dalal, a Jain scholar, to inspect manuscript collections in Jaisalmer and Pattan. Dalal cataloged 3,156 manuscripts in a descriptive list but died in 1918 before completing the project. Despite health challenges, he published at least 16 works in the series before his demise.
Conclusion
The German Orientalists' Day conference underscored pivotal advancements in textual scholarship, particularly through Prof. Liders' analysis of Sarvastivadina poetry and Turfan manuscripts, challenging existing paradigms by tracing Pali and Sanskrit texts to Ardha-Maigadhi origins. This intervention highlighted the fluidity of early Buddhist textual traditions and the necessity for rigorous source criticism. Concurrently, the establishment of the Gaekwad Oriental Series by Dr. Sir Sayaji Rao Gaekwad marked a transformative phase in Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscript preservation, fostering institutional support for Indological research. The untimely demise of C. D. Dalal, however, underscored the fragility of such scholarly endeavors, emphasizing the need for sustained collaboration and the urgent preservation of endangered manuscripts. Together, these developments reflect the dynamic interplay between European scholarly rigor and Indian institutional patronage in shaping modern Orientalist discourse.