Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
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The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India[1]. It was founded in 1917 to honor the life and work of Dr. Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837-1925), long regarded as the founder of Indology (Orientalism) in India. The institute is well-known for its collection of old Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts.
A long term project under the auspices of BORI, started in 1919, was the preparation of a Critical Edition of the Mahabharata. To widespread acclaim, the completion for publication was announced on September 22, 1966, by Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, then President of India, at a special function held at the institute. The Critical Edition was collated from 1,259 manuscripts.[2]. It comprised 18 Parvas of 89000+ verses in the Constituted Text, an elaborate Critical Apparatus (15000+ demi-quarto size pages in 19 volumes), and a Prolegomena on the material and methodology. Further work since the initial publication has produced a Critical Edition of the Harivamsa, a Pratika Index, a Bibliography of ancillary materials, and a Cultural Index.
The institute was vandalized in January 2004 by a mob made up of members of a Maratha youth squad, the Sambhaji Brigade, named after Shivaji's elder son. They were apparently angered by the help provided by the institute's staff (in translating manuscripts) to a Western writer, Dr. James Laine, who had discussed the telling and retelling of derogatory anecdotes about Shivaji's parentage and life in his book on narrations of the Shivaji story[3].
