Re: pali books in sinhalese script from BPS

rett wrote:

>Dear Bhante Nyanatusita,
>
>Thanks for the interesting info and the tip about BPS bookshop. As an
>odd coincidence, just this week I ran across (the first I've seen) a
>used volume of the Hevavitarane edition of the commentaries (to the
>Udaana). It's one of Helmer Smith's many old books that are in the
>shops these days in Sweden. I can see why this edition is regarded
>highly.
> 
>
Why did his books end up on the market?

>You asked about what sorts of texts I'm looking for. Well, everything
>really, but for the moment, apart from grammatical literature like
>Saddaniiti etc, I'm interested in titles like:
>
>mahaava.msa
>mahaava.msa.tiika
>va.msatthakathaa (same as above?)
>
>dhammapadatthaka (I have gunasena's but it's falling apart)
>
>upaasakajanaalankaara
>
>dasa(daana)vatthuppaakara.na
>rasavaahinii.tiika (not the basic text)
>siiha.lavatthuppakara.na
>
>And of course good editions of the canon, and suttapi.taka in
>particular, are the most central texts. A lot depends on the prices,
>as I'm sure you can imagine.
>
> 
>
I see what I can do. Most, if not all, of the Hevavitarane series are
available at the BPS. Some of the other books I have seen around too.
They are very reasonably priced. I have asked the BPS manager to get a
list prepared of what is available at the BPS and then get them to order
Sinhala Pali books available elsewhere in SL. I will probably have to
ask for this a few times and then it will eventually get done. Are you
connected to a university or are you building up a private collection?

>I'll start of course by contacting BPS directly, but also appreciate
>your offer to help facilitate book purchases if they don't have
>certain titles in stock. It makes sense that they would be easiest to
>order from, as I guess they are used to international orders. Are you
>directly connected with BPS?
> 
>
Recently I became the editor and organiser of the English section of the
BPS. It is better not contact BPS directly, but rather me as the
employees there can  have difficulties handling these types of things.
This is not Sweden. They are used to handle international orders.

>>There are many old editions of Pali texts
>>sitting in dusty (monastery) libraries here which could be digitally
>>scanned or photographed and made available on the internet.
>>   
>>
>This sounds very interesting, as does the similar idea with
>manuscripts (like suttanipata-sanne). Hosting would also be an issue,
>I suppose, since high quality images would take a lot of space and
>cost in terms of bandwidth for downloads. I suppose they could also
>be put onto CD-roms. I'll ask around to see if any of the (few,
>unfortunately) people I know in a position to donate would be
>interested. Perhaps someone could put together a 'teaser'. A few
>pages of high-res manuscript photos, for example, just enough to show
>people what you had in mind. I'm a firm believer in preserving rare
>manuscripts with photography.
>
> 
>
So am I. I wrote to Rupert Gethin of the PTS whether the PTS would be
interested. They will have the funds for it. He recently asked me
whether I could find the old printed editions of the Sanne and a Tika on
the Abhidhammatthasangaha for him so this was a good opportunity. The
problem is that with my cheap digital camera I can make high quality
pictures of half the length of palm leaves but not of the whole length
of leaves. So to read the lines one needs to switch pictures and
scholars don't like this. I could send a few samples if you like. Maybe
with a Canon EOS, or the like, fit with a broadangle lens one can make
pictures of whole leaves, but I don't know anyone who has such a camera
and can photograph a Sinhalese palmleaf manuscript. Recently some
student send me a few pictures he had made of the whole leaves of  a
Burmese manuscript. They were reasonable but still not satisfactory
enough for a project. Sinhalese manuscripts can be very densely written.
He forgot the name of the camera.
Indeed distribution by CDs would be better. However, bandwith becomes
less and less of a problem. The problem is that there are thousands of
MSS in Sri Lanka. Which ones to select? However, to start with
collections like the National Museum or Peradeniya University would be a
good start. Another problem would be dealing with nationalistic
sentiments, but this could be overcome if some Sinhalese get involved.

I will send you a copy of the Concise List of Pali Literature that I am
working on. It might be of use to you.

Best wishes,
                  Bh. Nyanatusita