Loan (Exhibition)
Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge, 02/10/2011 to 28/09/2018, Exhibition: Astronomy & Empire
Event Date 2/10/2011
Author: Rachel Hand

Description (CMS Description)
Palm leaf manuscript of 17 leaves. Written in pen on top leaf: "The Almanac for the years 14, 15, of the present Raja of Pooree(1872-73)". Bound with string through the centre of the palm leaves.
Event Date 3/2/2015
Author: maa

Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2017.3896 | Remedial
Event Date 11/7/2017
Author: Kirstie Williams

Context (Amendments / updates)
Object re-accessioned before loan to Whipple
Event Date 28/9/2017
Author: rachel hand

Description (Amendments / updates)
Craig Jamieson, Keeper of Sanskrit Manuscripts at the Cambridge University Library, suggests that the script is Odiya (ଓଡ଼ିଆ; formerly Oriya).
Event Date 4/9/2017
Author: Mark Elliott

Context (Amendments / updates)
The text reads “The Almanac for the years 14, 15, of the present Raja of Pooree (1872-73).”

‘Pooree’ is Puri, in Orissa (now Odisha). The Raja of Puri in 1872/3 was Dibyasingha Deva III, who ruled from 1859, so 1872/3 would have been the 14th/15th year of his reign. It all seems to fit.

Interestingly he was granted the title of Maharaja, rather than Raja, in 1877, so this would have been collected before that, He was also imprisoned by the British in 1878 (apparently for murder?) and sent to the penal colony of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, where he died in 1882. So it was definitely collected before then.

It is not impossible that the english handwriting is the same as the handwriting on a collection of seals of Indian governments, made by Robert Taylor in the 1860s and 70s, and which came to the Museum at an unknown date and route (possibly from the Fitzwilliam Museum). This is something we hope to try to explore further...

Malavika Anderson suggests the script is Kannada, rather then Bengali which was it was initially noted as. Oriya or Odiya (the language in Orissa or Odisha) uses a script that is in some ways in between Kannada/Tamil and Bengali scripts. I can’t be certain, but I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re looking at.

An Oriya almanac would, I think, be called a panjika (local variation of the terms we’ve already discussed). It would still, I think, be astrological/astronomical, concerned with celestial bodies, and therefore a nice link to the theme of the exhibition.

From notes by Mark Elliot prior to the loan of the manuscript to the Whipple for the exhibition Astronomy and Empire, 1 September 2017
Event Date 25/5/2018
Author: rachel hand

Loan (Exhibition)
Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge, 30/4/2019 to 30/7/2019, Exhibition: Astronomy & Empire
Event Date 30/4/2019
Author: rachel hand

Loan (Exhibition)
Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge, 07/05/2019 to 30/8/2019, Exhibition: Astronomy & Empire

Original display object label reads, 'An Odiya almanac / This panjika is a compendium of calendrical and astronomical data. Written on palm-leaf in Odiya, the language of Odisha in east Indiak, it would have been used for celestial prediction and astrological forecasting. Its English collector has written on it: "The Almanac for the years 14, 15, of the present Raja of Pooree (1872-73)." The almanac was compiled for the Raja of Puri, Dibyasingha Deva III, who ruled from 1859 and was imprisoned by the British for murder in 1878.'
Event Date 7/5/2019
Author: rachel hand