Commemorative Essays (An Old and Rare Book)

The idea of presenting a Volume of Commemorative Essays to Professor Kashinath Bapuji Pathak on the occasion of his 80th birth-day was first mooted in a resolution of the Executive Board of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute dated 26th October 1929, which ran as follows:

"That it be recommended to the Regulating Council that a volume of Commemorative Essays (to be contributed by select oriental scolars of India and outside) be presented to Prof. K. B. Pathak on the occasion of his 80th birth-day which falls on Asvina Suddha 8 Sake 1852 (29th September 1930) and that the Executive Board be authorised to make all necessary arrangements to carry on the work expeditiously,"

The resolution was approved by the Regulating Council of the Institute on 27th of October 1929, and a small Editorial Board with Dr. S. K. Belvalkar as Chairman was constituted. Invitations to scholars in India and Europe were forthwith despatched and some 50 papers on various subjects were received. It was decided to get the volume of Essays printed at the Institute's own Press, but, as naturally this was expected to take time, it was decided to formally present the Essays in their manuscript form to Prof. Pathak on the occasion of his 80th birth-day, which fell on 29th September 1930, corresponding to Asvina Suddha Astami, Sake 1852, of the Indian Calendar. A meeting of the members of the Institute, of the contributing scholars and other members of the general public was accordingly convened at the Institute with Mr. R. H. Beckett, the Director of Public Instruction, Bombay, in the Chair. It was a large and representative gathering at which Dr. S. K. Belvalkar, M. A., Ph. D., the Hon. Secretary of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, submitted the following statement:

"The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute was founded on the 6th of July 1917, the 80th birth-day of the late Sir Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, to commemorate and perpetuate the eminent and life-long services of Dr. Bhandarkar to the cause of Sanskritic research; and the inauguration of the Institute on that day was signalised by the presentation at the hands of Lord Willingdon, the then Governor of this Presidency, of a volume of commemorative essays written by Dr. Bhandarkar's "friends, pupils, and admirers from different lands and dedicated to him as a mark of respect and affection." It is no doubt a rare good fortune for this Institute to be privileged to present another similar collection of Commemorative Essays to Professor Dr. Kashinath Bapuji Pathak on the happy occasion of his 80th birth-day (81st according to the Hindu method of reckoning birth-days) which falls today, Asvina Suddha Astami of the Hindu Calendar corresponding to the 29th of September 1930. On this occasion it may not be out of place for me to mention a few salient facts of his biography and his literary activity which has been, and still continues to be, as silent and unassuming as it has proved to be solid and epoch-making in more than one branch of literary history and archaeology.

**Contents and Sample Pages**