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This collection consists of seven leather bound portfolios containing topographical drawings, maps, floor plans, notes and papers that the West brothers had created when working in the Maharashtra region of India in the mid to late 1800's. The main focus of the collection is the Kanheri Caves; a group of over 109 rock cut temples located in what is today the Sanjay Gandhi National Park on the western outskirts of Mumbai. The brothers studied these caves over the course of several decades, returning to the site many times to check and amend measurements, locations, and expand open their interpretation of the site. The remainder of the collection covers several other sites such as: Ajanta, Ellora and Daulatabad.

A facsimile of a monumental inscription at the Fa-hsing Temple, Canton (Guangzhou), acquired by Sir John Bowring, whilst Governor of Hong Kong. The facsimile measures 155cm x 90cm and is black ink on white paper, probably created from a squeeze impression. It is in fragile condition, with some previous repairs.

With the inscription is a translation, made by J. Gibson, entitled "Renovation of the monumental Inscription of the Buddhist Gods", dated 14 October 1858. This is handwritten in ink with further annotations in both ink and pencil to give further details regarding dates and allusions.

A Collection of Dharanis transcribed in Sanskrit, Chinese and Korean is a woodblock printed book with side-stitched binding comprising of wrapped-back sheets of paper and a plain outer cover. The title of the volume is written on the front cover along with a Royal Asiatic Society stamp. No other identifiers in English are available. The place and date of production are unknown but presumably precedes the common adoption of western binding techniques in the 1920-1930s.

An imperfect copy of the Puthen Pana or the Misiha Charitham of Johann Ernst Hanxelden. A letter inserted into the book, dated 26 January 1934, sent from L.D. Barnett to Mrs Cardew, identifies the volume and dates it as 18th century. The Puthen Pana is a poem written by Hanxleden about the life of Jesus Christ. On the front papers there is a note to state that the manuscript was given to the Society by Sir Alexander Johnston and that it is in Malayalam.

The poem consists of 14 padams. The first padam informs readers that the poem is written at the request of Antonio Pimental, Archbishop of Cranganore. The second padam focuses on the Fall of Man, fourth - the Annunciation, fifth - the Nativity, seventh - the Sermon on the Mount, tenth - the Last Supper, eleventh - the Trial and Crucifixion, the twelfth padam portrays the lament of Virgin Mary at the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus, thirteenth - the Resurrection, and the fourteenth portrays the Ascension. The 12th padam is considered the most important in the poem. But for the 12th, which is written in the metre, Nathonatha, the rest of the couplets are written in the metre, Sarpini.

Some of the pages are fragile and a few have had historic conservation repairs.

The second volume of two containing a handwritten copy of the Daśabhūmīśvara transcribed from a Calcutta manuscript under the supervision of Harinōhana Vidyābhūsana for Samuel G.T. Heatly (Heatley). Unfortunately the first volume is now missing from the collections. The volume has brown marbled cover and is in good condition.

Translations of Sections 5 and 8 of the Prabhu Linga Leelai named as the 'Prabhu Linga Lila' within the volumes. The translations are contained within bound volumes, the one containing section 8 has 'Brown's P.L. Lila' embossed on the spine. The translator states at the beginning of each volume 'Began reading 22nd April 1839, Began Translation 5th June 1839'. The translation is in prose rather than the verse form of the original though the verses are numbered within the margins. The volume containing section 5 also contains 'Notes on Prabhu Lingua Lila Section 3'.

"Prabhu Linga Leelai" is a 15th-century Lingayata work, written in Kannada, by Chamarasa. The poet had a dream in which Virabhadra, the son of Siva, asked him to write a long poem on the Lingayata saints of the 12th century. Chamarasa subsequently composed the entire Prabhulinga Leelai in eleven days. The book is based on the life and spiritual experiences of Allama Prabhu, a 12th century Virasaiva saint and teacher. The poet presented his poem to the court of his king Deva Raya II. This Kannada work was translated into Tamil verse by Sivaprakasa Swamigal, a Virasaiva poet and scholar, in the seventeenth century.

'A copy of the Report from the Madras Government to the Court of Directors on the importance of the Study of Sanscrit (Sanskrit) and the vernacular languages of the South of India to their civil servants. Dated January 1812. Also other documents relating to the same object.' This description is written on the internal front cover. Documents include:

• 'Extract Public Letter from Fort St George, Dated 10th January 1812'
• 'Extract Fort St. George Consultations in the General, Commercial and Law Departments dated the 10th December 1811'

These reports include findings of the committee set up to investigate the effectiveness of the teaching of languages and include letters from W. Thackeray, D. Hill and named Committee members.

This is a leather bound volume with pages numbered from 143 to 300 containing handwritten commentaries relating to India and Russia in 1830, described on the introductory pages as follows:

• Sir John McDonald's observations of Col. Evans work on The Invasion of India pp 143-216.
• Sir John Malcolm's notes on Col. Evans and Sir John McDonald's remarks, pp 217-230.
• Memoir of the NW Frontier taken from Public records by Capt/now Major/ Bonamy showing the Importance of the River Indus as connected with its defence, pp 231-300.
• Included in the volume is a newspaper cutting, dated April 1840, about a Russian expedition against China.

Two manuscript versions of a Sinhala-English dictionary, one of 241 pages and the other of 214 pages on foolscap paper. There are also some supplementary pages and some index pages associated with these manuscripts. The date of writing of these manuscripts is unknown but from the paper and ink they would appear to have been undertaken in the early to mid twentieth century. Both manuscripts are in the same hand.

The Papers include correspondence with Wiiliam Claxton Peppé, lists of the finds, some plans of the site, and a draft of an article by Peppé published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898, pp. 573-588. There is further allied material relating to the originals.