Table of Contents
- RESOURCE> New University of Toronto Burmese Pali
digital manuscript archive live
- NEW BOOK> Gergely Hidas “A Buddhist Ritual
Manual on Agriculture: Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja”
RESOURCE>
New University of Toronto Burmese Pali digital manuscript archive live
by Christoph Emmrich
Dear Colleagues,
It is a true pleasure for me to
draw your attention to a new online resource for the study of Burmese texts:
the Myanmar Manuscript Digital Library (MMDL).
Located at https://mmdl.utoronto.ca/,
housed at the University of Toronto, and supported by Toronto’s Robarts
Library, the site makes available for public retrieval manuscripts from Burma
in digitized form, collected under the direction of the Pali Text Society’s
William Pruitt, with the support of Yumi Ousaka from the Sendai College of
Technology, and together with an impressive team of scholars, technicians, and
volunteers from Burma and abroad. Thanks for making this ongoing digitization
project possible go to the Pali Text Society and Rupert Gethin, the Sendai
National College of Technology and Sunao Kasamatsu, the KDDI Foundation, the
Mitsubishi Foundation, the CARI Foundation, and the JSPS Kakenhi. Further team
members include Aleix Ruiz Falqueś, Kazuhiro Fujiwara, Yukata Kawasaki,
Professor Miao, U Aung Moe Oo, U Nyunt Maung, Win Htay, and Markus Wörgötter.
The University of Toronto and Robarts Library have offered and have helped
establish the electronic infrastructure for this archive. Even more
importantly, they have created the conditions for the long-term sustainability
of this archive, facilitating the dissemination of the results of this unique
and impressive effort for times to come. To begin with, this digital archive
comprises the contents of the U Po Thi Library, containing some 775 palm-leaf
manuscripts and located in Thaton, Mon State. However, as the digitization
project unfolds further, it is envisaged that the contents of more Burmese
archives will added, increasing further the volume and range of sources and
thus the value provided by this site.
My most sincere words of gratitude
for making this site possible go to William Pruitt, without whose vision, work,
persistence, and cheerfulness the world of Burma and Pali Studies would not be
able to so easily access these treasures. I thank him particularly for the
patience with which he has accompanied us at the University of Toronto,
offering his advice and support along the lengthy path it took us to make this
website accessible to you today. I would also like to thank the team at the
University of Toronto and at Robarts Library, most of all Priyadharshini
Murugaiah and Sian Meikle, for giving our site a home. I would like to thank
Jeffrey Bermejo for creating this site in the first place and for taking care of
it as it develops further.
Should you have questions
regarding the site, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I will do my
best to answer your questions or to redirect them to those colleagues and
friends who are more informed than me.
With warm regards,
Christoph Emmrich
Christoph Emmrich
----
Christoph
Emmrich
Associate
Professor, Buddhist Studies
Director,
Centre for South Asian Studies
at
the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
Chair,
Numata Program UofT/McMaster
University
of Toronto
NEW
BOOK> Gergely Hidas “A Buddhist Ritual Manual on Agriculture:
Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja”
by Lewis Doney
Dear colleagues,
I am happy to inform you of the
publication of a new Open Access book:
Hidas, Gergely
A Buddhist Ritual
Manual on Agriculture: Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja – Critical Edition and
Translation
This volume is the first in-depth study of
a recently discovered Sanskrit dhāraṇī spell text from around the 5th
century CE surviving in two palm-leaf and three paper manuscript compendia from
Nepal. This rare Buddhist scripture focuses on the ritual practice of
thaumaturgic weather control for successful agriculture through overpowering
mythical Nāgas. Traditionally, these serpentine beings are held responsible for
the amount of rainfall. The six chapters of the Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja
present the vidyādhara spell-master as a ritualist who uses maṇḍalas,
mudrās and other techniques to gain mastery over the Nāgas and thus
control the rains. By subjugating the Nāgas, favourable weather and good crops
are guaranteed. This links this incantation tradition to economic power and the
securing of worldly support for the Buddhist community.
Gergely Hidas is an Indologist and expert
on Sanskrit Buddhist texts. He is also the author of Mahāpratisarā-Mahāvidyārājñī:
The Great Amulet, Great Queen of Spells. (New Delhi:
International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 2012).
His new book is available for free
download from De Gruyter publishers, due to an Open Access agreement made
possible by the European Research Council’s funding of the project “Beyond
Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State” (ERC Synergy Project
609823 ASIA). Please follow this link: https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/509288
This is volume 3 of the new book series Beyond
Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State, edited by Michael
Willis, Lewis Doney and Sam van Schaik. The series is a research
initiative hosted by the British Museum and the British Library in London.
Moving beyond geographical, chronological, disciplinary and historiographical
boundaries, the books in this series explore the interactions of India and her
neighbors from late antiquity to the close of the medieval. More
information on the series is available at: https://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/485244
Yours,
Lewis Doney
