Dear Piya and Citta,

yes, in the PTS Pali English Dictionary (Davids & Stede), the numbers refer to the volume and page of PTS Pali edition of Tipitaka, unless otherwise specified. The PTS edition is a compilation of multiple other existing editions into Roman, an effort which deserved commendations.

However, such a referencing system is only adequate for specific applications, e.g. in works only referring to a single printed edition. I think we should consider a more universal reference system for the following reasons.

1. departure from printed editions to electronic editions, the CSCD is contained on a CD-ROM which holds only up to 650MB of data. Its entire contents can be distributed on a flash drive easily. People do not look at the screen as they would on paper traditionally.

2. research based on multiple editions. As researchers familiarize themselves with other scripts, PTS will lose its status as the de facto reference. Besides, it is getting more common that scholars appreciate the importance of having more than one source of reference.

3. technology-driven printing industry. Bhikkhu Bodhi's English translation of the Samyutta Nikaya is all in one volume, the era of the printing press driving the technology is long gone, the reverse is true now. Fixing the volume numbers and page numbers is no longer appropriate.

Just my 1-cent.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Piya Tan wrote:

D i 7 is the same as the scholarly way of referring to D 1:7 = Digha vol 1 page 7 of the Pali Text Society Pali text editions.

Vin 1 188 is the same as V 1:188 = Vinaya vol 1 page 188 of the Pali Text Society Pali text editions.

> I would like to ask what does "D i 7" or "Vin i 188" mean? I just know D=Digha nikaya, how about "i" and the no?