The Woolner Collection
The Woolner Collection is an important library of South Asian manuscripts at the Punjab University Library, Lahore, Pakistan. It was named after Alfred Cooper Woolner in recognition of his leadership at the University of the Punjab, and of his scholarship and special interest in South Asian literature.
The library was assembled gradually over a period of half a century, starting in the 1880s when Pandit Kashi Nath Kunte catalogued some of the famous manuscript libraries at Lahore, Gujranwala and Delhi. The initiative was renewed in 1913 when Dr Banarsi Das Jain, Professor of Hindi at Lahore's Oriental College, informed Prof. Woolner of the availability of manuscripts in the Punjab that could be purchased at reasonable cost. The library then began to grow in a serious way, through acquisition in the Punjab. By 1932, the collection numbered 6,782 manuscripts. By 1941, the number had grown to 7,895 manuscripts.
The Woolner Collection includes manuscripts on all the major disciplines of Sanskrit learning, including music, painting, philosophy, poetics, medicine, theatre, religion, linguistics, law and astronomy. Furthermore, it includes a grammar of the Persian language written in Sanskrit (#1214), as well as a Persian translation of the Mahābhārata (#1945).
Finding Aids
1. Early printed catalogues
The University of the Punjab published two volumes of catalogues of the Woolner Collection. The University has now digitized these two volumes and made them available on the net as an aid to international scholarship.
- The first volume was prepared by the university's Librarian, Labhu Ram, with the assistance of Pt. Bala Sahaya Shastri, Mr R. A. Shastry, and Pt. Bhagavad Datta, and was published in 1932.
- The second volume was also prepared by Pt Bala Sahai (sic) Shastri and Labhu Ram, with a preface by the new Librarian, S. S. Saith, and was published in 1941.
The catalogues may be consulted at http://catalogues.indology.info under Biswas 0535.
2. Woolner Project cataloguing
On the basis of digital images prepared in Lahore, the Woolner Project team prepared updated cataloguing information for the philosophical and selected other manuscripts in the Woolner Collection. The database is not publicly accessible until further notice. If you are interested in using it or cooperating with us, please contact karin.preisendanz@univie.ac.at .
3. A Handlist of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Punjab University Library:
Vol. 1 [Veda, Vedalakshana, Upanishad, Shrauta, Grhya, Dharma] by Gi-pyo Choi, Sung-doo Ahn, Jae-kwan Shim, Do-su Paek, and Young-gil Park.
The currently not publicly available website describes how the new Handlist supplements the catalogues described at 1. above in the following way:
- a concordance between serial numbers listed in the previous catalogue and identification numbers of the actual storage at Punjab University
- additional information which is missing or has been omitted in the previous catalogue
- corrections to errata and changed content