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96515GATHE*fj pY A R LIBRARYA S S O C I A T I O N -----IS IP r e s id e n t :Dr. G. S. ARUNDALE,PresidentTHEofTheTheosophical Societytheosophical h eadq u a r ter sA dyar, M adras, I ndia/ January, 1936x

THE ADYAR LIBRARYA G O LD EN JU B IL E EC E L E B R A T IO NThe A d ya r L ibrary a tta in ed its Golden Jubilee onDecember 29, 1935, and on 1st J a n u a ry 1936 (in the midsto f the Diamond Jubilee Convention o f T he TheosofihicalSociety) an A dyar L ibrary A ssociation was form ed toextend its world-wide influence as a cultural centre.H E purpose of the A dyarLibrary Association is topromote the interests of the L ib ra ry along specific lin e s : (1) T h eissue of a quarterly bulletinto make known to the worldthe kind of books available; (2)A research staff to be attached tothe Library by making provisionfor studentships, thereby encourag ing research in philosophy, occultscience, religion, and so on. W hatfollows is the material which Mr.A. J. Hamerster, Joint-Director,presented in a talk before theAdyar Library Conference:It was our late President, Dr.Besant, who once pondered thaton the one hand H. P. Blavatskyhad given Theosophy to the world,and that on the other hand, H . S.Olcott had given The Theosophical Society, and that it was still anopen question which of these twohad given the world the greatergift. It is true that the worldover, Colonel Olcott is best re membered for his gift of T heTheosophical Society, but to thosewho live at Adyar, as well as tothose thousands and thousands whoyearly visit Adyar, the one greatgift of the Colonel which comesTc. L3next to th a t of The TheosophicalSociety is surely the Adyar Lib rary. T h e Society the Coloneldid not so much consider as hisown creation, nor did H. P. Blavat sky think of the Theosophy shegave to the world as her Theosophy— both these were the Masters'own, but with the Adyar Libraryit was quite another thing. In hisG eneral R eport of 1890, the Presi dent-F ounder spoke of it with thedeepest emotion as “ that childof m y brain, that hope of myheart, the Adyar Library,” and wecannot be less thankful to the Pre sident-Founder for The Theosophi cal Society than for the Library.W h at would Adyar be without it ?W ould A dyar have ever becomethe great central spiritual pulsingheart and brain of The Societyall over the world, if it had notpossessed in the Adyar Libraryand its books the physical receptaclefor the life-blood of the Theo sophical Movement, that is theW isdom of the Ages !I will take you back in mindto th at time, now fifty years ago,when Colonel Olcott laid itsfoundations, by reproducing threeshort passages from his Old Diary

3- relevant to the event. T h etells u s : ‘The Delegates to th e T e n thL\ Convention began arriving23rd December [1885] , an dunceforward poured in by everyand steamer until th e 27thtfhen the sessions began. In m y" ual address I strongly pleadedaflflfor d e creation of an O rien talTibrary at the H eadquarters . . .I suggested that we should begin work as a m onum ent of thecompletion of our first decade . . .And see how friends have arisento help us with their m oney andinfluence to build up T h e S ocietyand make the Adyar L ib rary w hat1had hoped for it, before tw entyyears have come and gone. W ehad no ancient M SS. then [in1885], and only a couple of h u n dred or so of books ; whereas now[1904] we have 16,000 volum es inthe two beautiful libraries [rooms]that we have opened, and theprospect of the com m and of am plemeans in due course. W ith all theearnestness I can express, I againappeal to our members and sym pa thizers to hasten, by their individualexertions, the day when scholarswill make pilgrimages to A dyar tostudy what they m ay m ake thefinest Oriental literary collection inthe world.” 1bet me here for a m om entfreak off the Colonel’s story, to*** how far we have indeed, in theyears that have since passed, comeJP to our old leader’s expectations,nd fulfilled his hopes. F rom 18850 1904 or 1905, say in the first 20ars he tells us th a t the L ib raryacquired 16,000 volumes. T h e re fore in 1935, th a t is after 30 yearsm ore, if it had grown a t the sam erate, the L ib rary should be able togive an account of 40,000 volumes.I am happy to be able to announceth a t we have even exceeded thisfigure generously, th a t instead of40.000 volum es, the A dyar L ibrarycan now actually boast of being inpossession of not less than 56,000volum es, divided over the E asternan d W estern sections. T he O rien tal m anuscript section contains10.000 volumes. T o this we haveto add 11,000 printed volumesin the E astern section, and 35,000volum es in the W estern section.L e t us now continue with theC olonel’s s to r y : “ O n the thirdd ay of the Convention[thatis the 29th D ecem ber, 1885] aresolution was adopted [by theG eneral Council] approving ofthe plan suggested by the PresidentF o u n d er for the erection of abuilding for the Sam skrit L ibraryand P icture Gallery, and he wasrequested to carry it out as soonas practicable.” 2T h a t was not whispered into adeaf m an ’s ears. N either theColonel’s own active, busy nature,nor apparently the M asters’ drivingpower behind, would let him restin peace, before he brought down,in some way or other, the m entalidea into physical existence. Andso we read a few pages further onin his O ld D iary Leaves :“ As we crossed the threshold ofthe eleventh year, the erection ofthe building for the A dyar O rientalL ib rary was begun a t the lovelyhfyP’ ctL iih 327-28. C f. a lso S u p p lepp, to The Theosophist , Janu ary 1886, xvii-xxxviii.2 L oc. c it., x ii, 3 3 1 -3 2 . Cf. also S u p p le m e n t to T h e T h eo so p h ist, January 1886,p. lx x x i.

4Headquarters which had been found." 2 The official opening , Ibought for The Society and paid the new building took place ;? for. In my Diary of 1886 the entry a year later, on 28th Decern?Ifor January 1st says :1886.3 1“ ‘ In the name of the Masters andI come now to more materia lfor the sake of Their cause,' I, points regarding the Adyar Libraj! IHenry S. Olcott, President of The In the first place the finances. W jlTheosophical Society, this day were the first beginnings in this Iturned the first sod for the Samskrit spect ? On that same first day of ILibrary and Museum at Adyar. Tenth Annual Convention, wklThe only witnesses present were he read his Presidential Addreu IT. Vijiaraghava Charlu, [F.TLS.I and for the first time publicly andI(‘ A nanda ’)] and two of the officially broached the subject ojIgardeners. The impulse to do the founding of an Oriental Lib. Iit came so strongly [suddenly] rary, we find that the Colonel I—after staking out the ground for made in his manuscript Diary, Ithe building that I did not call any comprising thirty volumes, which!are among the most treasuredof the other people in the house."“ A very simple affair, one will possessions of the Adyar Archives,see: no speeches, no music, no the following entry: “ Opening ofprocessions, no humbug of any the Convention. Splendid day,sort, just a real beginning of what beautiful appearance of the Hall, Iis meant to be a great work, fu ll attendance, excellent spirit.accompanied by a declaration of Rs. 3,500 subscribed for Permanentthe motive at bottom; one which, Fund and Library and Pictmthough not heard by more than Gallery."If we look through the Treasur two or three spectators, yet certain er’sReport for 1935, we shallly must have been heard and notedin the quarter where the Wise find that the Adyar Library hasOnes sit and watch the actions of an “ Endowment Fund ” of morethan a lakh of rupees, and amen. ft iFrom the foregoing it is clear “ Building Fund ” of more thanthat the Foundation Day of the half a lakh of rupees, so that inAdyar Library must be considered this respect also we have donethe 29th December 1885, when rather well. Yet we could do muchthe resolution was passed by the better still. As has been the caseGeneral Council at its tenth annual for many years now, nearly half ofmeeting. The Colonel himself the total receipts of Rs. 11,000 isthought of it in that way, for just made up from a donation by Thebefore the resolution was passed Theosophical Society of Rs. 5,000.he addressed the General Council Now, The Society needs its ownwith the words that “ he had per funds for the ever extending fid?fect confidence in the future of and intensified quality of its mani'the Library they were about to fold activities. Therefore, &’ Old D iary Leaves, iii, 336. T he wordsbetween square brackets are added fromthe Colonel’s manuscript Diary.* S u pplem en t to The Theosoph ’January 1886, p. lxxxi.O ld D ia r y Leaves, iii, 389.

5president of The Society and thedirectors of the Library have beenL some time on the w atch toachieve, if possible, what I amcertain was Col. O lcott’s ideal, th atjsthe financial independence of the4dyar Library from T he Theo phical Society.One of the ways to come to thisrealization was the institution ofwhat is called Adyar D ay, on 17thFebruary, the day of the passingaway, in 1907, of the F ather ofboth The Theosophical Societyand The Adyar Library, as well asof the Olcott Harijan (Pancham a)Free Schools. The special con tributions asked for and receivedon Adyar day are allocated by thePresident in a certain proportionto these three institutions, accord ing to the urgency of their differ ent needs. The above-mentionedbudget of the Adyar Library for1936 shows that we count on an in come from this source of Rs. 1,000.But I am anxious to raise thatamount from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 6,000,so that the Library may becomeself-supporting, and The Societymay gain Rs. 5,000 for otherbranches of work.There are other ways still ofhelping the Adyar Library. I amthinking for example of an organi zation all over the world, consistingof a few people in every country,finding ways and means of theirown to obtain for the L ibrary onecopy of every important book thatcomes from the press, and isjudged suitable for a central lib rary with a primal Theosophicalinterest.###All these facts and ideas werepresented by Mr. H am ers ter, tothe Adyar Library Conference.T he resolutions for the formationof an Adyar Library Associationwere proposed by Dr. D. Gurumurti, Vice-Principal of the Theo sophical College, Madanapalle,who, in a fiery peroration leadingup to them, indicated that theRs. 6,000 needed would be raisedif one thousand members wouldsubscribe Rs. 6 per annum.An earlier speaker was Dr. Srini vasa Murti, Director of the AdyarLibrary, who visualized the daywhen a University would come intobeing at Adyar, “a second Nalanda,and scholars from E ast and W estwill throng to it in large numbers.The vital triads of a centre of learn ing, whether at Alexandria in E g y p t;N alanda, Taxila, or Benares inIn d ia ; or Paris or Oxford inEurope are,” as he made itclear, “ a spiritual centre, a univer sity and a library. These centresof learning are all great nationalinstitutions of international reputa tion, although they began as religi ous centres of Hinduism, Buddhism,Islam, Protestantism or Catholi cism. T he Theosophical Societyhas been from its start an inter national institution; and its vitaltriad will therefore be an inter national Spiritual Centre, an inter national University, and an inter national Library.”F O U N D IN G OF T H E ADYARL I B R A R Y A S S O C IA T IO NO n 1st January 1936, D r. G . S.A rundale. President of T h e TheosophicalS ociety , form ally announced the establish m ent on this day of the Adyar LibraryA ssociation , in grateful m em ory of theFounder of the Adyar Library, ColonelH en ry S teele O lcott.