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work, for which Malayalam scholars were searching for several
decades. This ola manuscript had remained unnoticed in our
collection as part of a bigger bundle with the general title 'Kerala
Ulpatti'. It is very commendable that Dr Scaria Zacharia is making
it available to the academic world in a scholarly edition. This series
will continue with the publication of the Tellicherry records
mentioned above. These documents in Malayalam should throw
fresh light on Kerala-British relations during the 18th century.
For the past twenty-five years the Oriental Department of the
University Library in Tuebingen has been publishing accession lists
and sending these to interested scholars and institutions on a
subscription basis. Since 1977 the original accession list for all
oriental subjects has been divided into two separate lists. We now
publish a list separately for material collected on South Asia. It is
published seven times a year and the last issue each year contains
an author-index. An index to oriental periodicals subscribed to by
the University Library in Tuebingen was published in 1983 and again
in 1991. The latest issue contains more than 4,500 periodical titles
of which about 1,700 are current and cover all fields of Orientalism.
There are approximately 700 current titles from and on South Asia
at the moment. Numerous more titles which are no longer published
are also listed.
All our oriental literature is available nationally and within
Europe, internationally, through inter-library loan. These loans
have reached more than 6,000 annually for all oriental subjects. We
are able to supply almost 80% of the titles requested. Copies of
periodical articles are provided and as for rare or sensitive books
we provide film copies. Requests for specific titles, however, should
not be made directly to us, but rather through a library in the vicinity
of the prospective borrower which participates in the inter-library
loan system. About 4,000 new works on South Asian subjects are
being acquired annually at the present time. In addition to these,
exchange facilities, either through the German Research Society
(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) or direct between libraries,
bring in certain publications which would otherwise be difficult to obtain.
Today the university library contains around 250,000 volumes
of South Asian literature, both from and on South Asia. These books,
