Oriental manuscripts of Sir Mark Aurel Stein

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 161 GB 3105 MSS. Stein Or. MSS. Stein Or. c. 1-18, d. 1-85, e. 1-22, 23 (R), 24-37, f. 1-18, g. 1-3
  • Dates of Creation
      16th-19th century
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
      Sanskrit, Arabic, Pushto, and Turkish.
  • Physical Description
      161 shelfmarks

Scope and Content

Manuscripts collected by Sir Mark Aurel Stein in Kashmir, 16th-19th century. The vast majority of the manuscripts are Sanskrit, though a little Arabic, Pashto and Turkish material is present. The subjects of the manuscripts are Vedas, Sanskrit grammar and lexicography, rhetoric, Kavya, drama, philosophy, Dharmasastra science, Puranas, Bhakti and Tantra. The manuscripts are mainly written on paper, but the collection does include some rare birch bark items.

Administrative / Biographical History

Sir Mark Aurel Stein (1862-1943) was a scholar, explorer and archaeologist. See the Dictionary of National Biography for details.

Access Information

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk).

Acquisition Information

The manuscripts were transferred to the Bodleian during the 1960s.

Note

Collection level description created by Susan Thomas, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

Other Finding Aids

All the Sanskrit manuscripts are described in Gerard L. M. Clauson 'Catalogue of the Stein collection of Sanskrit mss. from Kashmir', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1912, pp. 587-627.

Custodial History

The manuscripts were collected by Stein in Kashmir, chiefly at Srinagar, between 1888 and 1905 and were originally deposited on loan in the Indian Institute, Oxford, in 1911. On Stein's death in 1943 the manuscripts were bequeathed to the Indian Institute.

Related Material

The Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts holds the papers of Sir Mark Aurel Stein, 1894-1944 (MSS. Stein 1-458, MSS. Eng. d. 3408-9, e. 3349; MSS. Photogr. c. 146, d. 32-4, e. 16-21).