Re: pali books in sinhalese script from BPS

Everett Thiele wrote:

Dear Rett,

>Dear Bhante Nyanatusita,
>
>Thanks for the heads-up about the two versions of the message. Here
>are some quick responses to parts I didn't see until now.
> 
>
Sorry for the confusion. My internet provider here does not provide any
kind of protection whatsoever against viruses and I was ignorant about
the need of a proper firewall. Now I have three Trojan horse monitoring
programs running, 2 virus scanners, and a new firewall. My new firewall
informed me 80 attempts were made to access my computer, and blocked,
after being about 1 hour on the net!

>>Are you connected to a university or are you building up a
>>private collection?
>>   
>>
>It's for my private collection. I'm a student at the University of
>Stockholm and am also loosely connected with Uppsala University (as in
>taking an evening class there). My long-term goal is to get as good at
>Pali as I can and help promote Pali and Tipi.taka studies in Sweden.
>This will probably need to take place through informal networks,
>since, as Ole mentioned, Pali is not especially 'trendy' in the
>universities here at this time.
>
> 
>
Even here it is not trendy. Most young Sri Lankan monks prefer to study
social sciences, politics, and other worldly topics, and many find it
strange to see a western monk who is interested in Pali manuscripts.
Some even get suspicious and think that one has ulterior motives and
wants to steal or buy manuscripts to sell as antique in the west.

>>So to read the lines one needs to switch pictures and
>>scholars don't like this.
>>   
>>
>
>I have a question about this. In the absence of a better solution,
>would it be satisfactory to graft the two halves together in an
>image-processing program? I could give it a try if you can put a
>couple of 'halves' up for download, though I'm not much of a tecchie.
>The halves would need to be straight, and exactly the same size. This
>could probably be easily accomplished if the camera is on a tripod and
>the mss can be slid laterally along a small shelf or straightedge
>fixed on the table-surface.
>
>Just an idea. It might be more of a fiddle than it's worth.
>
> 
>
I have thought about this too. It is called “stitching”. I tried to
stitch a few pictures with one or two programs last year but it is quite
a bit of work. Imagine having to stitch together the pictures of a
manuscript of 300 leaves, that is, 1200 pictures... It is definitely
better to use a good camera on which a broad lens can be fitted.

>>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.
>>   
>>
> Thank you, that sounds interesting.
>
> 
>
It should be with you now.

>About trying to decide where to start, I don't have any knowledge
>about the mss tradition at all. I would need to do a special study
>just to start being able to read handwritten Pali in Sinhalese script.
>I'm still spending most of my time trying to improve my reading
>ability in the language and printed Sinhalese script.
>
> 
>
The “Catalogue of Palm Leaf Manuscripts in the Library of the Colombo
Museum” by W.A. de Silva, Colombo, 1938, would be a good start. It gives
a lot of detailed information about manufacture, dating-systems,
writing, etc, of manuscripts in the introduction. Maybe it is available
in a university library in Sweden. If not let me know and I can try to
get it scanned in. The Catalogue of Sinhalese Manuscripts in the
Copenhagen Royal Library by Godakumbara also has a useful introduction.

Generally, depending on the abilities of the scribe, the Sinhala writing
in manuscripts is fine, sometimes even quite beautiful, and the
characters are as easy or even easier to read than printed books. The
problem of course is that there are no spaces between words which slows
down reading, imagine having to read
namotassabhagavatoarahatosammaasambuddhassa etc in small
Sinhala script.

Best wishes,
Bh. Nyanatusita


>best regards,
>
>/Rett
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