Incontro con l’India

On 6 September 1995 in the Sala Corgnali of the «Vincenzo Joppi» Municipal Library in Udine, Romano Lazzeroni (University of Pisa) presented the Grammatica sanscrita (Pisa 1991) written by Saverio Sani (University of Genoa). This noteworthy grammar is certain to attract the attention of all those whose interests lie in the Vedic and Classical periods of the ancient Indian language.

At the conclusion of the presentation, the director of the Municipal Library, Romano Vecchiet, unveiled a project, financed by the Municipal Authority of Udine, to produce a compact-disc version of the 225 manuscripts in the Fondo Tessitori collection. The Fondo Tessitori was donated by the Tessitori family in 1923 to the Municipal Library and is a heritage of immense interest to all branches of Indological studies. The collection comprises 225 manuscripts, in Sanskrit, Prakrits, Apabhraṃśa and Old Marwari, acquired by Luigi Pio Tessitori at Jaipur in 1915. Of these documents, MS 4510 deserves a special mention. Written in Sanskrit and illuminated with miniatures in the Rajput style, the manuscript recounts an episode from the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.

On 7 September in the Salone del Parlamento of the Castle of Udine, a concert entitled La musica dell' India del nord was organized in collaboration with Marco Maria Tosolini (Conservatorio "Jacopo Tomadini" in Udine). In the first part of the concert Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay presented songs from the traditional repertoire. After the interval the great sitar artist Manilal Nag, who was born at Bankura (West Bengal) in 1939, performed a number of ragas accompanied by Sankha Chatterjee on tabla.