Manuscripts breakdown of the contents of the IFP collection

The following rough breakdown of subject matter gives the approximate number of codices per subject. N.B. this is not the number of texts, because the majority of the codices transmit several texts. (For a more detailed account, see the description of our on-going cataloguing project)

• Canonical texts of Saivism (Saivagama, also known as Tantra) 1900 codices
• Mantra/Ritual manuals 1890
• Devotional Hymns/Legends of Holy places (Stotra/Mahatmya) 1360
• Astrology 435
• The literary epic about Rama (the Ramayana) 192
• Other Sanskrit epics, myths, legends (Purana) 230
• Traditional South Indian medicine 198
• Veda 187
• Literary works in Sanskrit 160
• Tamil devotional literature 1350

Thus the bulk of the IFP’s collection comprises manuscripts of scriptures (tantras/agamas) of the Saiva Siddhanta and of commentaries thereon or of Saiva ritual manuals, compendia, doctrinal treatises, handbooks, and notes of Saiva priests. In bulk alone the more than 11 thousand manuscripts of the French institutions in Pondicherry constitute a manuscript collection of major importance and a repository of many branches of learning. This joint collection also has the distinction of being the largest assemblage in the world of manuscripts of texts of a major current in theistic Hinduism: the Saiva Siddhanta.