Over the last few months I’ve found around 20 EBT parallels not yet listed on SC (at the time of finding them at least), but I’ve never been able to figure out how or where you’re actually meant to suggest them. I thought there might be a dedicated thread here, but the closest is this wiki post which I don’t think gets checked very often, and I can’t find anything on the Github page (though maybe that’s just due to my unfamiliarity with the site).
If there is a dedicated place for suggesting new parallels I think it should be made more conspicuous, and if there isn’t I think it should be made even if it wouldn’t necessarily be very active. Right now it seems like the process for people who aren’t intimately involved with SC is just to make posts about one-off parallels they find or mention it to someone who can add them but I think it would be far more useful for there to be a dedicated place for new parallels to be suggested.
Thank you. I still hold to what I suggested in the topic, but I will post them there for now.
Are you aware of any standards or limitations for length, detail, etc. for a comment there? Since I was going to post them in a forum post I didn’t include links to many of them, and pointed to some places with more parallels I didn’t mention.
Yes, that makes sense. Not everyone wants to file a comment there. I’m not even sure if someone is actively looking at the comments there, but I was pointed to the issue.
You can only write up to 64k characters, which is more than enough for a typical usage.
You can only write up to 64k characters, which is more than enough for a typical usage
Oh yes, I’m not planning on writing that much.
What I meant was whether or not there is some sort of assumed format or standards I should adhere to. For instance, that I should focus on making it concise, or on detailing the contents of each parallel, or easiest for someone to implement the recommended parallels (e.g by adding links to each parallel), or refrain from recommending related sources with more parallels that I haven’t actually listed or reviewed, etc.
I think (someone correct me if I’m wrong) the bigger issue currently is that there isn’t anyone actively maintaining the parallels file for Suttacentral. It’s a giant JSON file that functions as a spreadsheet associating texts together. Some of those texts are hosted on Suttacentral (like the Chinese Agamas), and some are only references. There are texts that could be added, too, but we’re long on people who want to see things done and short on people who want to do things.
I’ve told Ajahn @Sujato that I’d look over it, but I can’t really make sense of the json data’s structure. If I knew the logic I could give it a shot (unless someone more experienced wants to have at it!)
I’ve only looked at it a couple times and added a couple parallels for SA sutras in the past. It seems like each “parallels” array is like a row in a spreadsheet. Each text in the list will list the other texts as its parallels on its sutta card. Otherwise, the file is like a giant spreadsheet with thousands of rows, as far as I can tell.
The issue that I think can turn into a headache is adding parallels for texts that SuttaCentral isn’t tracking yet, like the Tibetan texts @saavaka has been find parallels in. If there’s no info for the text yet, a person will have to figure out all the places in the repo that it needs to be added for a new text to appear on the website. Basically, some documentation is needed for how to do such tasks …
But yes, the data structure is from 2015 and needs a revision. I made a proposal 6 years ago but didn’t get any feedback so I left it. I also made a proposal for adding a UI to SuttaCentral for adding parallels so it would be easier for other people to add things without the need to understand the json file.
Last year I revised the json file for changes in segment numbers and took out errors. I noticed that the few people who had added something had not done it correctly and I rectified these. The most common error is adding the parallel once in one place, but usually you need to look at a whole group of entries and add it in a number of places. That’s what makes it complex.
There are other issues too. I worked on the parallels 6 years ago but ran into some problems for which I needed feedback so couldn’t continue. One major issue was the difference between when a parallel is considered “full” and when “partial”, especially related to individual paragraphs vs the whole text and how to add that to the json. (Basically: how detailed do you make it? - for instance if there are a few paragraphs the same, do you add it as a partial parallel to the whole text or a full parallel on paragraph level or both?)
I tried to resolve these issues with BuddhaNexus, which can show matches on a detailed level; I added the Pali texts and the various tables as were used in SC and legacy SC, linking it all up with SC segment by segment. But BN could only show inner-language matches this way and it was too much to add to SC itself with the current json structure.
I’ll have a look at it in the next weeks and will be happy to add anything that’s needed. @snowbird, do you have a list of the inter-pali parallels you found so I can add these too? Also in the future I’m happy to add parallels and revise the data structure if that is wanted. But sometimes I might have questions as to the above mentioned issues.
I had a look at the list. It is a lot more than I thought, so it will take a bit longer!
I think that some of these parallels I did a long time ago, but I will check.
What I would need most is a person who can read Buddhist Chinese to help me.
It is not enough for me that someone says: Pali sutta X is similar to Chinese sutta Y. First of all, what is “similar”? Is it a “full” or “resembling” parallel. And if X and/or Y have other parallels already listed, what is the relationship between all of those. This can be a complex puzzle and that is where I got stuck last time too. I need someone to help me with the Chinese. I can guide that person with questions so between the two of us we can work it out.
For Pali and Sanskrit I can work it out myself, but not Chinese.
Thank you so much @Dogen! That would be great. Sadhu!
I am just back and a bit swamped with work at the moment, but I hope I can look into all this next week. I will then PM you with questions.
I’m always happy to look at anything that anyone has questions about. I don’t get on the forum daily like I used to do, but I’ll get emails if I’m messaged.
A parallel of the verses in the Bhaddekarattasutta (MN 131:3.1) is found in Toh 313 of the Kangyur. The English translation with a list of parallels in the introduction is on 84000.co.
(I’ve found that under MN 133 the Tibetan parallels are mentioned.)
