Centre for South Asian Studies

Content

John Levy Sound Archive

 

The John Levy Archive is a primary sound archive of international importance, consisting of nearly 700 original field recordings. 

Mark Trewin 

The John Levy Archive is a primary sound archive of international importance, consisting of nearly 700 original field recordings. A significant proportion of the collection was recorded in South Asia between 1958 and 1972 (223 spools from India, 55 from Sri Lanka and 48 from Bhutan). The scope of the recordings is wide, but strongly features religious music (Vedic, Buddhist, Sufi, Jewish, and Christian), court traditions and indigenous folk music (e.g. music of the Todas). 

The recordings are unique sound documents, musically, culturally and historically. John Levy (1910-1976) was a skilled, sensitive and pioneering recordist who was advised by leading scholars of his day. His recordings were mostly of complete performances in natural situations. The musicians he recorded were among the very best at the time, and for reasons of privileged access and/or historical circumstance, several recordings are the sole extant documents of musical genres or styles which have disappeared or been radically transformed. John Levy's commitment to sharing his insights through LP publication and BBC broadcasts in collaboration with experts, particularly in his later years, is widely acknowledged. Many of his published recordings are now commercially available on CD, issued by Lyrichord, Smithsonian Folkways, Topic Records, and others. All of the South Asian material has been indexed (including copies of John Levy's field notes) together with a chronological register of recordings. Proposed future work includes the development of the resource, and further research and publication programmes. The Archives are located at  29 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD and can be visited from Tuesday-Fridays, 10-4 pm 

Discography of Published South Asian Recordings 

• Classical Music of India . Recordings and notes by John Levy. Nonesuch H 2014 [Warner] 

• Music from South India: Kerala . Recordings and notes by John Levy. Additional notes by Peter Crossley-Holland. Folkways FR 4365 [Smithsonian Folkways F 04365] 

• Music from the Shrines of Ajmer and Mundra . Recordings and notes by John Levy. Tangent TGM 105 [CD: Topic Records TSCD911] 

• The Music of India, Vol 4: Karnatik Music . UNESCO Musical Anthology of the Orient. Recordings and notes by John Levy. Bärenreiter BM 30L2021 [Rounder Records] 

• The Four Vedas . Recordings and notes by John Levy and J.F. Staal. Asch Mankind AHM 4126 (2 LPs) [Smithsonian Folkways F 04126] 

• A Panorama of North Indian Music: Hindustani Recordings and notes by John Levy. CBS / BBC Record Enterprises 63519 [Sony] 

• A Panorama of South Indian Music: Karnatic Recordings and notes by John Levy. CBS / BBC Record Enterprises 63257 [Sony] 

• Tibetan Buddhist Rites from the Monasteries of Bhutan 3 LPs. Recordings and notes by John Levy . Lyrichord LLST 7255-7 [CD reissue Lyrichord 7255-7] 

• Tibetan and Bhutanese Instrumental and Folk Music Recordings and notes by John Levy . Lyrichord LLST 7258 [CD reissue Lyrichord 7258] 

Historic Collections of Printed Books on South Asia 

Edinburgh University Library appears to have acquired books on South Asia since the early years of the 18th century when, from 1710 until 1837, it was entitled to claim a free copy of every book printed in the United Kingdom. 

Peter B. Freshwater 

Edinburgh University Library appears to have acquired books on South Asia since the early years of the 18th century when, from 1710 until 1837, it was entitled to claim a free copy of every book printed in the United Kingdom. For much of this time the University had had as Principal William Robertson, the leading historian whose last published work was the remarkable Historical disquisition concerning the knowledge which the ancients had of India ... (London, 1791). Robertson did not bequeath to the University or to the Library any significant collection of books of his own but, as Principal, he did much to ensure that the University's agent in London claimed as many new and appropriate books for the Library as he could. 

The Library continued to acquire books on South Asia, by purchase and by gift, all through the 19th century and continues to do so. The University had established a Chair of Hebrew and Semitic Languages as early as 1642, and some of its incumbents appear to have had interests in other Oriental languages as well. At least one early holder of the Chair of Constitutional History (now the Chair of Constitutional Law), Alexander Fraser Tytler, had an interest in India, publishing Considerations on the present political state of India , 2 volumes (London, 1815). However, the Library probably owes much of its later South Asian printed wealth to the incumbents of the Chair of Sanskrit, which was instituted in 1862. The first, Theodor Aufrecht, left behind him several scholarly catalogues and editions of Sanskrit manuscripts. The second, Hans Julius Eggeling (Professor from 1875 until his retiral in 1914), had been Librarian of the India Office until his appointment to the Chair. He was associated with the University Library for almost all of his tenure of office, first as a member of the Committee, with a brief period as Acting Librarian following the death of the Librarian John Small in 1886, and later as Curator of the Library from 1887 to 1913. Eggeling's successor in the Chair, Arthur Berriedale Keith was Professor from 1914 until his death in 1944, after which his sister presented to the Library her late brother's papers and correspondence and his working library of about 1600 books and 1500 offprints and pamphlets; many of these are to with the literature, history and politics of India and the constitutional development of the British Empire (Keith had also held the post of Lecturer in the Constitution of the British Empire). 

Not surprisingly, most of the Library's printed books on South Asia reflect the interest of the West in, and influence upon, the Indian sub-continent, especially the history shared by the peoples of the Indian sub-continent and Britain. Many of its historic materials on South Asia are to be found among the books acquired during its copyright period, but a significant number predate it. These include early descriptions such as John Ogilby's Asia, the first part; being an accurate description of Persia ... the vast empire of the Great Mogol, and other parts of India (London, 1673) as well as travellers' accounts like An historical relation of the Island of Ceylon in the East Indies ... by Robert Knox (London, 1681); Knox was captain of an East-India Company frigate who was captured in Ceylon when he put the ship into harbour there for a refit after a storm. The Library is also well stocked with collected editions of early accounts of travellers to South Asia and to other parts of the world. 

Contemporary printed items published by and about the East India Company, its servants and its activities include occasional 17th-century pamphlets like Sir Dudley Digges' The Defence of Trade (London, 1624) in the Dugald Stewart Collection, and other 17th-century titles have more recently been purchased as facsimile reprints. Later EIC material includes An act for establishing certain regulations for ... the affairs of the East India Company (London, 1774) with texts in Hindustani and English, John Bruce's Annals of the Honorable East-India Company... 3 volumes, (London, 1810), H. T. Prinsep's General register of the Hon'ble East India Company's civil servants of the Bengal establishment, from 1790 to 1842 ... (Calcutta, 1844), and occasional satires such as Sir Charles D'Oyley's Tom Raw, the griffin: a burlesque poem in twelve cantos ... (London, 1828) illustrated with hand-coloured caricatures. 

The Library's 18th-century collections reflect the growing scholarly interest in India, its peoples, their languages and their customs, and a more general interest in the wars waged by the EIC on behalf of the British Government against various Indian rulers. Warren Hastings and others like him encouraged and fostered scholarly activity while engaged in their professional administrative and warlike occupations; some of the Library's material on Hastings and some of the other titles mentioned in this paper are listed in its exhibition catalogue, Warren Hastings and British India (Edinburgh, 1988). Sir William Jones produced Poeseos asiaticae commentorium libris ex (London, 1774) and other pioneering books on Indian languages and literatures. The Asiatic Society, founded in 1784, published volumes of transactions, Asiatick researches , and other series between 1788 and 1839. Thomas Maurice produced his Indian antiquities ... 5 volumes (London, 1793-94) and History of Hindostan ... 2 volumes (London, 1795-98) before becoming a Church of England vicar and Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum. Works on administrative affairs include John Zephaniah Holwell's Indian tracts (London, 1764), which includes a revised version of his personal account of the Black Hole of Calcutta, of which he was one of the survivors, in 1758. Holwell compiled other works on Indian history and customs, and these too are represented. In fact, the Library's excellent collections of 18th-century pamphlets often makes it possible to follow different sides of political discussions. For example, the general collection has a set of Henry Vansittart's Narrative of the transactions of Bengal from the year 1760 to the year 1764... 3 volumes (London, 1766), and the Dugald Stewart Collection includes Luke Scrafton's Observations on Mr Vansittart's Narrative (London, [1767]); Vansittart, Scraffon and Francis Forde were all drowned in a shipwreck on their way out to India in 1770 to reform the Bengal administration. 

South Asia continues to be well represented in the Library's 19th and early 20th-century collections, which include scholarly and popular works. Basic general history is represented by the 3-volume History of British India (London, 1817) by James Mill, father of the better-known philosopher John Stuart Mill, a later and more detailed History of British India in 6 volumes (London, 1841-45) by Edward Thornton, who also compiled A gazetteer of the territories under the government of the East-India Company... 4 volumes (London, 1854). They rub shoulders with volumes of local history published in their own countries, such as Syad Muhammad Latif's Lahore: its history, architectural remains and antiquities (Lahore, 1892) and Agra historical and descriptive (Calcutta, 1896). Travellers' accounts and diaries too are plentiful, like Mountstuart Elphinstone's An account of the kingdom of Caubul... (London, 1815), Francis Egerton's Journal of a winter's tour in India , 2 volumes (London, 1852), Charles Raikes' Notes on the north-west provinces of India (London, 1852), Sir Joseph Hooker's Himalayan journals , 2 volumes (London, 1854), and William Henry Knight's Diary of a pedestrian in Cashmere and Tibet (London, 1863). As well as the Berriedale Keith Collection already mentioned, one other collection of particular note is the Cleghorn Bequest of books on forestry, many of which relate to Indian forestry. 

Periodicals and series are often surprisingly extensive. The Library has, for instance, three incomplete but complementary sets of different editions of Asiatick researches , originally published in Calcutta between 1788 and 1839 and later reprinted in London. The Transactions and Journals of the Royal Asiatic Society and of its Bombay and Ceylon Branches, and the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal , are all well represented if not complete. Many of these volumes, and indeed many of the monographs on South Asia, are interesting examples of early Indian printing, and would repay a bibliographical survey of such imprints in the Library. The Library is also rich in late 19th and early 20th-century productions of Indian presses, especially those of government and state printers. 

When a library has been acquiring books for well over 400 years and comes late to adopting the computer as the medium for compiling and providing access to its catalogues, it is easy to underestimate the wealth of books, especially older titles and those in non-Western languages, that lie partially hidden on the library's shelves. This is Edinburgh University Library's present plight: only the full retrospective conversion of that catalogue, and the addition of the records to the current on-line catalogue, will reveal the full extent of the Library's historic holdings on South Asia. In the mean time, it is necessary still to search the guard-book catalogue author by author, but the rewards are there for those who do. 

South Asian Manuscripts

 

Edinburgh University Library has about 650 manuscripts in oriental languages originating from the countries of the Middle East and South Asia. 

Edinburgh University Library has about 650 manuscripts in oriental languages originating from the countries of the Middle East and South Asia. 429 of these are in Arabic or Persian and are listed in the Descriptive catalogue of 1925 by Hukk, Ethé and Robertson (1). With the 101 Arabic and Persian MSS from New College Library listed in Serjeant's Handlist (2) of 1942, they constitute the great majority of the Library's oriental holdings. They include in particular two of the treasures of the Library, the World history of Rashid al-Din and the Chronology of ancient nations of Al-Biruni, both MSS written in Arabic at Tabriz in Persia about 1307 A.D., and both illuminated by miniatures which are so well known that we sell transparencies and collect reproduction fees almost every week. 

 

Sanskrit manuscripts 

The most remarkable of our Sanskrit MSS, at least to the non-specialist, is a text of the Mahabharata written in one continuous roll of silk, about 72 metres [230 feet] long, 13.5cm [5.5 inches] wide, with 77 brightly painted miniatures, the text being written at a density of about 15 lines to the inch. Given to the Library in 1821, it is suspended between two rollers in a glass-topped case 3 feet 4 inches long. It has not been studied from either the textual or art-historical points of view, as far as is known. (Shelfmark OrMS 510.) 

J. D. Pearson, in his Oriental MSS in Europe and North America, 1971 (3), states that "Edinburgh University Library houses in its muniment room 31 Sanskrit and 11 Pali MSS (in Burmese script, catalogue, unpublished, by K. Whitbread) together with 8 rolls and 8 metal plates with Sanskrit inscriptions". With some transfers from New College and elsewhere, the Sanskrit codices now comprise OrMS 478-502 and OrMS 640-641. 

There are in fact 7 charters on 31 copper plates, three of which date back to the 7th century AD Two of these charters, dating from 628/9 AD and 633/4 AD were published in facsimile in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, new series, vol.1, 1865, and again in 1884 in the Indian Antiquary Bombay), vol.13, this time in transliteration. But both editors used imperfect impressions of the original plates, which they had never seen. The originals of these plates, together with others, came into the possession of Dr Julius Eggeling, and, with a bundle of notes on other topics, were presented to the Library by his son. We have detailed notes on these charters from 1946-47 written by Dr L. D. Barnett, then Librarian of the School of Oriental and African Studies. indi and Hindustani manuscripts. 

Hindi MSS are also present in small numbers, 7 on history, poetry, stories and astrology being listed in Hukk, Ethé and Robertson (OrMS 377-383), and a further 14 (now numbered OrMS 504-507 OrMS 598-605 and OrMS 647-648). Some from New College were given about 1880 by R. M. Binning, an Indian Civil Servant who divided his gifts between the University Library and New College, which was then a quite separate Free Church institution. 

 

Manuscripts on palm leaves 

The major collection of MSS in South Asian scripts is however our palm leaf books. There are 111 parcels or- bundles of leaves, with a further 11 from New College and another recently donated. The latter texts still await identification and cataloguing. Those in the main collection have been described in part by various scholars, whose work is available in ten rather tentative typed lists, and in a manuscript shelf list. They show that the collection is of predominantly Buddhist works in Pali, Tamil, Sinhalese, Tibetan, Burmese and Siamese, dating mainly from the late 18th or early 19th centuries. 

List 2 gives detailed idfentifications of 26 Pali MSS, with reference to published editions of the texts, but without physical description of the actual copies in this collection. This is presumably the list by K. Whitbread referred to by Professor Pearson. There is also List 3, which gives the titles of a further nine Pali texts, mostly with Siamese commentary, contained in bundle 5. (This gives a total of 35 Pali items.) 

 

Manuscripts relating to South Asia 

Some notes on MSS relating to India and other South Asian countries may be of interest. The history of India and its various regions is the subject of 51 of the Persian MSS listed in Hukk, Ethé and Robertson (OrMS 76-83 and OrMS 200- 238). Examples are OrMS 204, History of the life and reign of Firuz-Shah, Sultan of Delhi, 1351-1388, written 1663 AD, or OrMS 78, History of the Emperor Akbar the Great, by Abu al- Fazl, or OrMS 82, A diary of the siege and conquest of Golkundah, near Haiderabad, by the Emperor Alamgir in 1695 AD. 

There is also a finely written and finely bound Koran (OrMS 148) which belonged to Tipu-Sahib, Sultan of Mysore, 1749- 1799 AD, who was killed in the battle to defend his city, Seringapatam, against the British and the Mahrattas in the 4th Mysore War. It was given by the Directors of the East India Company in 1805. OrMS 456, a volume of civil ordinances in Persian, with translations into two Indic languages, is also said to be from Tipu Sultan's library. 

A Guide to Western MSS and Documents in the British Isles relating to South and South East Asia by Wainwright, Matthews and Pearson, 1965 (4) listed 29 items then in the Main Library and 2 in New College. These are mainly items from the huge collection of historical and literary MSS bequeathed in 1878 by David Laing, an Edinburgh bookseller, librarian, editor and antiquary. They include 18th century letters from Scots in India about trade or military affairs - some of them relating to the campaigns against Tipu Sultan. 

A recent addition to this material is a collection of about 300 letters from 1776-1796, which are the correspondence of Kenneth Murchison, a Scots surgeon with the East India Company in Calcutta. We acquired these as part of a collect ion related to his son Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the geographer and geologist after whom the geology chair in this University is named. These letters have not yet been catalogued. 

A dozen miscellaneous volumes from Carberry Tower, five miles east of Edinburgh, were presented in 1961, when the house was given to the Church of Scotland as a conference centre. The provenance of these would repay some study, especially OrMS 471, The memoirs of Shah Shujah al Mulk, after his exile from Kabul, presented by the writer to the Rt Hon M. Elphinstone. This was presumably Mountstuart Elphinstone of Afghanistan, who was one of several Elphinstones connected with Carberry Tower. 

A further source of modern material that may be relevant are the papers of Arthur Berriedale Keith. The 14 boxes of his papers in the Library were inventoried in 1981 by Ridgway F. Shinn (5), who has subsequently published a biography of Berriedale Keith. The papers include a small quantity of notes on Sanskrit and linguistic matters, in files labelled 'Oriental MSS' and 'Oriental Papers'. The University library holds the valuable collection of private papers of Hugh Cleghorn, relating to Indian forestry, and of Patrick Geddes, relating to early 20 century urban planning in India. The University's medical archive also holds (amongst others) the papers of Robertson Milne, a pioneer of psychiatry in India. 

To sum up, there 33 Sanskrit MSS including 7 copper plate charters; 21 Hindi and Hindustani MSS; and 122 MSS on palm leaves, of which 35 are Pali texts. There are over 50 Persian MSS related to Indian history and culture, some 18th century correspondence of Scots in India, and further material connected with two of the University's professors of Sanskrit, and several later colonial officials who studied at Edinburgh. 

These notes are a conflation of catalogue entries with information gleaned from passing scholars, and in no sense represent original work. It will be obvious that the compiler had no knowledge of Asian scripts. It should also be noted that none of this material is included in our general Index of Manuscripts, which covers only Western, non-Mediaeval texts. 

 

Microfilm Acquisitions 

The library's collection of South Asian material has recently been enhanced by the acquisition of two valuable microfilm collections: 

Indian (Vernacular) Newspaper Reports (all provinces), c1868-1942 is held in Special Collections, with the shelfmark Mic.P. 5234-5419. 

Indian Proscribed Tracts, 1907-1947 (in 16 microform reels) is also in Special Collections, with the shelfmark Mic.P. 5107-5122. 

An index to the Proscribed Tracts is to be found here. 

See also Further EUL Resources on South Asia including Historic Collections of Printed Books on South Asia in Edinburgh University Library by Peter B. Freshwater and The John Levy Sound Archive by Mark Trewin. 

 

National Archives and National Library of Scotland 

Relevant holdings of the National Library of Scotland are listed in SOUTH ASIAN COLLECTIONS. Highlights include the papers of Alexander Walker (Malabar and Gujarat 1790-1810), the Graham Brown collection (on mountaineering in the Himalayas), papers on the Medical History of British India, Viceregal papers of the 1st and 4th Earls of Minto, and the INDIA PAPERS - a collection of 4,000 volumes of official publications. A special list of NLS resources relating to the Indian Uprising of 1857 may be found on the archives page of the Mutiny at the Margins project. 

Collections held in the National Archives of Scotland include the private papers of Lord Dalhousie (Governor-General of India 1848-56) 

You can conduct an advanced online search of Edinburgh archives with keywords 'Edinburgh' and 'India' at www.archiveshub.ac.uk 

Notes 

1. A descriptive catalogue of the Arabic and Persian manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library. By M. A. Hukk, H. Ethé and E. Robertson . [Edinburgh] for the University of Edinburgh, 1925. 454 pp. See also Oriental manuscripts - a continuation of A descriptive catalogue of the Arabic and Persian manuscripts in Edinburgh University Library, 1925, by Hukk, Ethé and Robertson [which lists OrMSS 1-429]. (EUL, Special Collections, Handlists of manuscripts, H9, January 1994.) [Lists OrMSS 430-653] 

2. A handlist of the Arabic, Persian and Hindustani MSS of New College, Edinburgh. By R. B. Serjeant. London, Luzac , 1942. 16 pp. 

3. Oriental manuscripts in Europe and North America, a survey. Compiled by J. D. Pearson, Zug, Switzerland, 1971, 515 pp. [p. 382 refers] This reference is mainly a repetition from p. 69 of Pearson's Oriental manuscript collections in the libraries of Great Britain and Ireland. London, Royal Asiatic Society, 1954. 90 pp. 

4. A guide to Western manuscripts and documents in the British Isles relating to South and South East Asia. Compiled by M. D. Wainwright and N. Matthews, under the general supervision of J. D. Pearson. London, 1965. 532 pp. [pp. 392 + 417-418 refer.]. See also A guide to MSS in the British Isles relating to South and Southeast Asia, by J. D. Pearson. Volume 2, 1990. [pp. 199-202 refer.] 

5. Guide to Arthur Berriedale Keith, papers and correspondence, 1896-1941. Edinburgh University Library special Collections: Gen. 140-153. Ridgway F.Shinn, October, 1981. [Typescript, 142 pp.]