Litttle-known Mon Pali materials

Below is a brief account of the Mon-Pali materials I found in a research
trip to a Mon island north of Nonthaburi (about a month ago).  Although
other collections of Thai Mon and Pali-in-Mon-script materials have been
catalogued, none of the manuscripts at Ko Kret (described below) have been. 
I won't digress recap the historical background, but the Mon (a.k.a.
Dvaravati, a.k.a. Rumunnyadesa) tradition is of special importance to both
the Thai and Sinhalese Pali literature as we have it today (both the Sri
Lankan Rumunnya-Nikaya and the Thai Thammayut Nikaya were attempts to revive
the Vinaya by (re-)importing the upper ordination from the Mon).  The Mon
tradition received royal patronage in Thailand from Rama IV (but to a
diminished extent from Rama V), and continues to be suppressed and/or
erradicated in Burma.  Mon emigration to southern Thailand in the modern
period has left a few isolated, unassimilated communities unto this day, but
the more ancient and continuous pattern of settlement was the connection
north-east from the Rumunnyadesa up toward Lopburi and Lanna.

E.M.
  -------------------------------
I made a trip to Nonthaburi today --of more particular interest, Ko Kret
(island), being the one major concentration of Mon-speaking people in the
greater Bangkok area.  I thought I would write up a bit of a description of
the Mon-Pali materials I encountered there, as Ko Kret is difficult to reach
(even if you already live in Bangkok), and most likely those of you who have
been there have not seen it recently.

The short news is that there are big piles of uncatalogued and never/rarely
read Mon-Pali manuscripts sitting up at the Ko-Kret museum (the museum is
situated within the major temple on Ko-Kret island [the temple is called
"Wat Paramai", although the full name is somewhat longer]).  It is a
"museum" in the most primitive and meaningful sense of the term: an
accumulation of "public property" in a place open to the public.  I suspect
the manuscripts were simply handed over by monasteries and private owners
who could no longer read them, and therefore had no use for them.  Some are
Mon, some are Pali in the Mon script; the total number, I would say is just
under 200 --assuming that they have no storage aside from what is visible. 
Some of the manuscripts were on shelves, others apparently cased within
decorative wood boxes, etc.; at all times they have a few examples on
open-air display --i.e., where you can touch and read them.  The items on
display were in Mon rather than Mon-Pali when I was there (today); the
percentage of the manuscripts in Mon vs. Mon-Pali would be impossible to
guess from what you can see of them (namely, the edge of the bundle: some
wrapped in cloth, others cased in wood (as mentioned) or bare).  [Note: an
independent source claims that they have a 180 MS suttapitaka, so this may
raise the total number above what I observed, or else it radically reduces
the number in the Mon language vs. Mon-script Pali]

They also had a seemingly-complete set of the 1888 Mon-Pali printed editions
(initiated by Mongkut, but printed over the decades following 1888) --again,
looking like nobody had read them in a very long time, if ever, and kept in
nailed-shut bookcases.  As I could see some of the titles, I made the
following "inventory" of the books on display:

  - A set of the Vinaya bound in yellow leather, with gold detailing, looking
like it truly could have been printed circa 1888; titles on the spine in
Mon-Pali characters, total of 14 volumes (that I could see).

  - A set of similar, and seemingly contemporaneous volumes, with identical
gold detailing and Mon-Pali typeface on the spine, but with blue leather
binding, and a slightly more confusing series of titles: a total of 12
visible volumes.  I surmise that this is a (lengthy) collection of
recitation and ritual information --but this is based solely on the fact
that "-kriya" and "-kara" kept coming up in the titles, and because it is
too brief a set to be a suttapitaka, or an abhidhammapitaka (assuming it is
a complete set at all).  All of the titles in the Blue-bound series began
with "Buddhadhammasanggha", and the volume I took time to peer at continued
its title "upaasakaa mahaasati...", the rest being illegible.  My guess
would be that this is a book of rituals or recitations relating to
laypeople, or perhaps a guide to conduct for laypeople, but, again, the
blue-bound series does not seem to reflect any traditional order or
organization of the suttas I know of; thus, I surmise, it may be made up of
many 'manuals' composed on such themes (even if they are composed *of*
quotations from the pali suttas ... perhaps, if there is original text
inside, but is it in Mon rather than Pali?).  I would be delighted to be
proven wrong --but such proof would rely on being able to open the book
[and, first, being able to open the bookshelf!].  If this edition is, e.g.,
an independent commentarial tradition from the Mons, I've never heard of
such a thing (and would need to know more). [Note: I have since investigated
and found that the Mons had a strong, independent tradition of
interpretation and examinations on the Vinaya, including commentarial
material.  I still do not know to what extent they had their own "tika" on
the suttas.]

  - There was a tantalizing miscellany of Mon-Pali leatherbounds, seeming to
be individual editions, rather than part of any other set: a large, robust
RED leatherbound, claiming to be one of the Nikayas (squint as I could at
the Mon title, I couldn't figure out which one), and looking quite ancient
(again, probably from years following 1888??).  Two completely unmarked
brown leatherbounds, of equal age and girth --possibly two other Nikayas? 
Or two other parts of the same Nikaya?  [Or, of course, they could simply be
naming the "Nikaya" that published the book --i.e., the word used in the
sense of the order/fraternity]

  - There is also a large set of the suttapitaka (or perhaps the entire
tripitaka --I didn't count the volumes) which I take to be the 1893 edition,
i.e., compiled partly from Mon sources, but printed in Thai characters,
under Royal patronage.  At any rate, the writing on the spine is in Thai,
but I would be delighted to be proved wrong, and to discover that the text
inside is in Mon-Pali rather than Thai.  I doubt it.  This could be an even
later edition --it appeared to be significantly younger than the other texts
mentioned, but this may be because it has never been read.

*None* of the above editions are identical with the 1904 Mon-Pali edition I
reported on (at length) in my last e-mail, and which I found at the National
library.  The latter I have a few Xeroxed pages from ... which I could send
to anyone who wanted them for their typographical oddities. [The particular
book I xeroxed a few pages from is a Mon-script Vinaya Mahavaggo; the
typeface is extremely legible, effective, and beautiful, but does not retain
the Mon "hook" I have seen elsewhere]

Printed materials aside: I could probably make an inventory of those 200
Palm-Leaf manuscripts for Peter Skilling's foundation, and make a copy for
the museum, with or without some small grant from the Siam Society or
equivalent.  Figuring out the titles of those texts would only be as
difficult as taking them off the shelf (i.e., one at a time) --and if there
is an "undiscovered" Pali or Mon text there, it would be invaluable. 
There's a great deal of "easy" philological work like that lying around here
... and if it isn't done, nobody will even notice if a bunch of those
manuscripts are stolen (perhaps a few at a time) and turn up for sale in
antique shops.  They are susceptible to theft in their current location and
condition, but are protected (for the time being) by the presence of more
valuable objects being nearby, and even more easily stolen.

One manuscript that *would* be a noticed absence is an impressive lacquered
"Square Pali" manuscript (i.e., Mon Square Pali!), made by applying black
lacquer to "pages" shaved from ivory --more particularly from the tusks of
royal elephants that had died of old age (i.e., not hunted).  The white text
gleamed out against the black painted onto it.  It seemed to be impervious
to the passage of time (to use an accurate but unflattering metaphor, it
gleamed like a new-minted credit card) --with the exception of the
red-pigment-and-gold cover page, which looked ancient and faded.  The text
is magnificently stylized --truly at the far edge of comprehensibility.  To
read it, one would have to squint at or copy out each character; but this is
a thoroughly aesthetic, rather than functional, "typeface" --and I say
"typeface" as it was made in as regular and square a fashion as if it were
cut type.

E.M.


--
A saying of the Buddha from http://metta.lk/
Get your Dhamma Books from http://books.metta.lk/
The craving of the heedless man grows like a Maluva (all entangling)
creeper. He runs hither and thither (from one life to another) like a monkey
in the forest looking for fruit.
Random Dhammapada Verse 334