1916 edition of the Baalaavataara

[I'm here replying on-list to an off-list discussion with Jim, which
included the invitation to join the list]

[Jim:]
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One problem facing someone in the West in studying such
grammars is getting a hold of them and so few of them have been
printed in Roman characters making it necessary to learn some new
scripts as I have done with Devanagari, Burmese, and now Thai. It
would be helpful if you could keep on the lookout for such grammars
and how to order them from Thailand.
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[Eisel:]

I should mention a few things here,
(1) I made a copy of a 1916 edition of the Baalaavataaro yesterday; it has
the Pali in Devanagari and Roman, plus solid english translation and
explanation of the content.  I am eager to make a study of it.  The copy at
the National Library (Bangkok) was literally falling apart, and had been a
meal for many an insect.  I had never heard of this edition before: it is
published by the University of Calcutta, 1916.  They also had two small
Romanized Pali primers by Tilde, published out of the Rangoon Baptist
Mission --although I know of two other Pali textbooks that came out of that
operation, these books were news to me (and Tilde himself I had not heard of
before).
(2) The edition of the Vyakara.na that I am preparing is not Romanized --it
has parallel Burmese and Sinhalese script.  The Sinhalese is in proper,
classical-literary Sinhalese, not the modern form (quite a technological
feat, owed to www.xenotypetech.com).  I will prepare a second edition in
Khmer (Cambodian) possibly with Lao-Dhamma script in parallel, due to the
great need for Pali textbooks in that part of the world.  I think it is
enormously important to build up one's ability in indigenous scripts,
especially the palm-leaf manuscript forms --although, if you live in a part
of the world where no manuscripts exist, I suppose this skill is of
diminished value.
(3) I have been very active in trying to survey and report some of the Pali
resources here in Bangkok --I made a trip to Ko Kret to inspect the Mon
(Dvaravati) materials, and the aforementioned trip to Ubon was likewise to
see what they had in the way of Pali manuscripts (in Lao-Dhamma script). 
The National Library here is a great disappointment to me --although they
have one beautiful, fragile edition of 1904 in stylized Mon script. 
Presumably the Siam Society library will be better organized, if/when I get
there.

E.M.

--
A saying of the Buddha from http://metta.lk/
Get your Dhamma Books from http://books.metta.lk/
Those who are infatuated with lust fall back into the stream as (does) a
spider into the web spun by itself. This too the wise cut off and wander,
with no longing, released from all sorrow.
Random Dhammapada Verse 347