Update on the DPCV, the oldest complete Pali manuscript project

[sujato]

Some years ago, SuttaCentral undertook to create a digital edition of the oldest complete Pali manuscript. Our aim is to create a diplomatic edition, which means that we reproduce in digital form the manuscript as faithfully as possible, without any corrections or editorial interventions. The purpose is not to replace the well-edited and consistent modern MS edition, but to see what it was like to read an old manuscript in comparison.

A previous post is here:

Dutiya-Parakkamabāhu Cullavagga inscription project update

Dear friends, I wanted to let you all know about the recent progress we have made with the transcription project for the 13th century Cullavagga from the Colombo National Museum. I first proposed this project in 2018, and you can see the project proposal here: I wanted to briefly let you know about our recently completed visit to Colombo. Our project was endorsed by President Maithripala Sirisena and the Minister for Cultural Affairs Sajith Premadasa, who instructed the National Museum to sup…

The manuscript, which resides in the national museum in Colombo, contains the whole of the Cullavagga, written in the 14th century at the behest of King Parakkamabahu II, hence the name, “Dutiya-Parakkamabahu Cullavagga" or DPCV. Our project was undertaken with the direct support of the then-President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena.

There is, so far as I know, only one substantive text that is older, from the 8th-9th centuries. It was published some years ago, but covers only a few pages, coincidentally, also of the Cullavagga.

Bendall-CV: The Oldest Pali Manuscript

In 1899, Cecil Bendall brought to the attention of Indologists a fragment of a Pali text in Nepal which appears to be the oldest Pali manuscript. It contains several pages of the Cullavagga, and was copied in the 8th or 9th centuries. In 1991, Oskar von Hinuber edited and published the manuscript under the title “The Oldest Pali Manuscript”. It is, I believe, the only substantial passage in Pali that has been published from a manuscript older than the 18th century. Now, thanks to Venerables Vi…

I’m delighted to inform you that after many years of steady work, our two primary transcribers, Deepika and Roshini, have completed their task. We now have a full digital text in Roman characters for the whole Cullavagga.

We have also been making headway on getting the text independently proofread. Our longstanding friend Sumana Ratnayaka has been taking this on, but due to his schedule, the main work is now in the capable hands of Ven Manapitiye Wajirabuddhi, a young Sri Lankan monk at the Stockholm Buddhist Vihara.

Deepika and I met yesterday here in Parramatta with Mark Allon, whose expertise in dealing with Gandhari manuscripts has been essential to the whole project.

When we’re satisfied with the proofreading, we’ll adapt the digital text to a Bilara edition so it can be compared digitally with our MS edition, and read online as an alternate Pali source for the Cullavagga.

Ultimately, we’d also like to publish analysis of the text as well. The Cullavagga contains many interesting and important chapters on monastic life, the schism of Devadatta, the bhikkhunis, and the First and Second Councils. So far, the preliminary findings are that the text is pretty much similar to modern editions. That’s what we expected, but the interest will be in the details.

[Taohua]

What a wonderful, deeply appreciated contribution to our understanding of the history of Buddhist texts! Thank you so much for all your efforts to make this primary source available.