In the window of a sweet shop

The rather pompous National Mission for Manuscripts is like a sweet shop which will never open, but will distribute leaflets about how great their candies and pastries are. Furthermore, they will have a small sample in the window you can drool at. Then the only thing you can do is walk away in frustration after seeing the perennial 'opening soon' sign. The owner will never pick up the phone and if he does he will be full of promises. In fact, he will pretend that the store is open, and you're some kind of idiot for failing to notice this fact.


I don't know if anyone had noticed this before (if so, I sincerely apologize), but this particular piece here is a sample of that huge and rather delicious cake which is the Mañjuśriyamūlakalpa. A gut feeling tells me that this is none other but the Trivandrum manuscript, or at least the right half of three of its folios (the first corresponds to a portion in chapter 36). I sincerely hope that the thing is still joined with its left half which was perhaps left out here for effect. The sad truth is, however, that in Cochin I saw astrological manuscripts sawn in half (or third) so that tourist sahab looking for nice coffee table item could carry it out easier, and for the antique dealer to make double/triple profit.

DSBC new text: Śrāvakabhūmi

Shukla's edition is now online at the DSBC. The texts are being inputted at a prodigious rate. Rumour has it that most of the CIHTS editions will also be available in e-text form.

DSBC new text: STTS

With a newly formatted structure (I have a hunch where that came from), under the heading 'tantra' a significant new contribution, the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha (Lokesh Chandra [and D. Litt - for the joke see below] edition) is now online, courtesy of the good people at the DSBC.

DSBC new text: Avadānaśataka

Speyer's edition of the Avadānaśataka is now online at the DSBC.

DSBC new text: Padyacūḍāmaṇi

Thanks to the good offices of the Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods, the Siddhārthacarit[/r]a or Padyacūḍāmaṇi is now online over at the DSBC. The source has not yet been specified, but it is most likely from Swami Dwarikadas Shastri's edition: Siddhārthacarita Kāvya of Ācārya Buddhaghoṣa, Bauddha Bhārati series no. 31 (Varanasi 1994).

PS: I only wish they'd put the whole text in one html file and input ṃ for ṁ...