SV: pali books in sinhalese script from BPS

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: palistudy@yahoogroups.com [mailto:palistudy@yahoogroups.com] På vegne
af nyanatusita bhikkhu
Sendt: 6. oktober 2005 19:48
Til: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Emne: Re: [palistudy] pali books in sinhalese script from BPS

On 02/10/05, rett <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.

What happened to Helmer Smith's library when he died in the beginning of the
fifties last century, is a mystery to me. I have some of his books in my
personal library. Apparently they were scattered all over the place. To
present you with another shocking report: I have been told that Trenckner's
missing transcripts of Anguttaranikaya have been traced to the British
Library! Apparently Trenckner lent his transcripts to Morris. When Morris
died they became absorbed by the British Library. Today the idea of getting
them back to Denmark requires diplomacy of the kind in which no one wants to
invest his/hers time. Sigh!

Ole Pind


>
> How did Helmer's books come on the market? Shouldn't they not be in a
> university library?


  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
> <http://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.
>
> > The BPS is preparing a list for you. They have most of the
> > Hevavitarane
> books at cheap rates, ie, rs. 100-200 (US 1-2) each. I will arrange
> for some other books to be ordered from other publishers.
>
> 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?
>
> > I am the organiser and editor of the English section of the BPS.
> > Better
> contact me directly because contacting the BPS can be very slow and
> complicated in a case like this. They are good at sending
> 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. Rupert Gethin asked me to make a copy of two Abhidhamma
> > books
> recently and this was a good opportunity to bring this up with him. He
> seems to be interested and will bring it up with the PTS council. The
> problem with manuscripts of course is that there are so many, and many
> of these will not be worthwhile to be photographed. It takes an expert
> to see whether a manuscript is worthwhile or not. Where to start? The
> Colombo Museum or the Peradeniya University collections would be good
> starts. One also has to deal with xenophobic and nationalistic
> sentiments which are common here and be careful to get the local
authorities interested and on one's side.
>
> I was about to send you my list of Pali literature and an article on
> Khom script MSS in Sri Lanka but then my computer got infected with
> worms and now my email manager is down. I will send them soon.
>
  Yours sincerely,
>
> Bh. Nyanatusita
>
  Forest Hermitage
Udawattakele
PO Box 61
Kandy
Sri Lanka


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