Request for Bilara Translation Permissions: Tamil Translation of Majjhima Nikāya
Dear SuttaCentral Team and Community,
I am writing to express my intention to contribute to SuttaCentral by undertaking a Tamil translation of the Majjhima Nikāya, working sutta by sutta.
By profession, I am a teacher, and by passion, a Python programmer. I also serve as the General Secretary of The Buddhist Society of India (Tamil Nadu Chapter).
This initiative arose from personal experience: while attempting to study the Tipiṭaka deeply, I realized that comprehensive, authentic, segment-aligned Tamil translations are not readily accessible to seekers and practitioners. To bridge this gap and serve the Buddhist community, I would like to translate Bhikkhu Sujato’s English verses and prose into clear, faithful modern Tamil.
Could you please grant me the necessary translation permissions on Bilara for the Tamil language (ta)?
* GitHub Username: mageshsugu
* Proposed Initial Scope: Majjhima Nikāya (starting with MN 1 as a pilot for review)
* Reference Text: Bhikkhu Sujato’s English translation (en-sujato) alongside the root Pali text (pli-ms)
I look forward to your guidance on setting up the pilot files and adhering to SuttaCentral’s translation standards.
With metta,
Magesh S
General Secretary, The Buddhist Society of India (Tamil Nadu Chapter)
Warm greetings @magesh , and welcome to the forum!
It’s wonderful that you intend to contribute to Tamil translations on SuttaCentral. There isn’t hardly anything in your language so far, only the blurbs for the AN. Let me just tag @Bilara .
If you are thinking about a new translation project on SuttaCentral, Bilara is the recommended method, and you already expressed that this is what you would like to use.
First of all, you should ask Bhante @sujato for his consent. When that has been granted, @HongDa would set up a Bilara project for you. In the meantime, you may consult the following documents:
Do you have any experience with translating, or writing in general?
Please note:
AI may not be used in any way to create translations, including first drafts, proofreading, or summaries. This includes Google translate or any apps like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.
All Bilara translations need to have CC0 copyright license. This means anyone can legally use your translations in any way, including printing and selling them without asking for permission. If this is not acceptable, consider publishing as legacy translations.
This sounds like a very beneficial project. I know lots of folks in Sri Lanka would also be interested in a translation like this. And the MN is a great place to start, in my opinion.
