The Digital Sanskrit

Buddhist Canon: Its

prospects and future
By
Min Bahadur Shakya
Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods, Nepal
EBTI/CBETA Conference
Taipei
Feb 15-17, 2008
Contents
 What is the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon?
(1)
A Short History

• - The DSBC is a collection of over 250 Buddhist

Sanskrit e-texts
• - Texts are manually input at NIEM, Nepal,
mostly from South Asian publications
• - The first phase in 2003 was collaboration
between Univ. of the West and NIEM
• - It was initially guided by Lewis Lancaster and
sponsored by Ven.Hsing Yun
• - Since 2005, the DSBC e-texts have been freely
downloadable via the internet:
• http://www.uwest.edu/sanskritcanon/
• - Now, for the first time in history, the basic
texts of Indian Buddhism are accessible to the
whole world
Input team
Input team
Input team
Master Hsing Yun
Prof. Lewis Lancaster
Screenshot of the DSBC
homepage
What is the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon?
(2)
The Texts
• - The e-texts are available both in Unicode
Devanagari and Roman with diacritics
• - All e-texts can be easily searched and cut-and-
pasted into other applications
• - Currently HTML is used for all texts
• - Other formats (eg. plain UTF8 text) may be
used in future
• - There is no markup. Separate files are used for
separate chapters
• - There are no notes, front/end matter or critical
apparatus. The e-texts are simply searchable
indexes to the published texts
• - Priority is given to inputting the texts. Digital
search tools and markup are future tasks
 Screenshot of a DSBC text
in Devanagari and Roman
• *
 Why a Buddhist Canon instead of
a Collection?

• - In India, collections definitely existed in

various monasteries, even though the contents
of these collections are not precisely known
• - In Nepal, a core group of nine Mahāyāna texts
(the navasūtra or navadharma) is recognised.
These texts were the among the first to be
input for the DSBC
• - Outside South Asia, in China and Tibet, canons
of Buddhist texts were created for the
convenience of Buddhist institutions
• - A canon is useful for designating texts which
are accepted for teaching, study and practice
• - The DSBC aims to include all texts belonging
to the Sanskrit tradition of Buddhism
 Picture of the navasutra (books)
 

• *
 What texts are included in the
Digital Sanskrit Buddhist canon?

• A Sanskrit work is included if:

• 1. It is spoken by a Buddha
• 2. Its author regards him/herself as
Buddhist
• 3. It was used by Buddhists in
preference to texts of other
traditions
• eg. certain grammars and medical
texts (‘secular’ Buddhist literature)
 What texts should not be included?
(1)
Content
• - There is no exclusion based on place or
date of composition
• - traditions of Buddhist theory and
practice do not end with Śākyamuni Buddha
• - There is no exclusion based on doctrinal
content
• - unless the text takes a clearly anti-
Buddhist position
• - the phenomenon of ‘spurious texts’ is
well known outside India
• - but there are very few examples of
Buddhist texts which were rejected within
the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition, and none of
these are thought to survive.
 What texts should not be included?
(2) Poor Quality Texts

• The inclusion of very corrupt texts

(eg. from very late manuscripts) can
be misleading or counter-productive
• - For this reason the DSBC depends
on published texts
• - High quality editions of texts are
often copyrighted works that authors
• - However, fragmentary or
incomplete texts can provide useful
data for research
 What texts should not be included?
(3)
Vajrayāna Texts
• Many tantric texts were not intended to be openly
transmitted, but:
several of these texts have already been published, so
they are no longer secret
• all Vajrayāna traditions maintain that initiation is
essential to actually use tantric texts
• to distribute a tantric text digitally does not
necessarily disrupt traditions of tantric practice
• the common problem of tantric texts being
misunderstood (without reference to living tradition or
commentaries) will not be solved simply by excluding
tantric texts from the canon; they can be easily
obtained from libraries
• Some kinds of tantric text, eg. dhāraṇīs and
kriyātantras, are not secret and are already being
included
• - The DSBC is considering the inclusion of all published
Vajrayāna texts
 Who uses a Buddhist canon in Sanskrit?
(1)
The Mahāyāna
• All Mahāyāna schools derive their authority from Sanskrit
texts, even though translations are used outside South Asia
• In translated scriptures, questions of meaning,
interpretation and authenticity are sometimes only resolved
by consulting the original Sanskrit
• Mahāyāna traditions deriving from Sanskrit texts are very
widespread:
• East Asian: China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Chinese
overseas
• Tibetan: Tibet ,Bhutan, India, Nepal, the West
• Old Javanese: Indonesia
• Some Buddhist traditions still use Sanskrit texts directly:
• Newar Buddhism: Nepal, Newar diaspora areas (India,
etc.)
• Sanskrit is also extremely important for the tantric Buddhist
traditions:
• Mantranaya:Tibetan Buddhism, East Asia, Indonesia
• * Picture of Ranjana script in Tibet or
China
Who uses a Buddhist canon in Sanskrit?

(2) The Śrāvakayāna

• Historically, some Śrāvakayāna schools

used Sanskrit as well
• A handful of non-doctrinal Sanskrit texts are
still transmitted in areas that have become
totally Theravādin: Śrī Laṅka, Burma,
Thailand, Cambodia
• Ironically, most Sanskrit manuscripts from
Theravādin areas have no direct connection
to Buddhism
• Yet many Sanskrit texts of Indian Buddhism
are older than Pali commentarial works
• Thus Sanskrit texts have at least exegetical
importance for Theravādin Buddhists
 Who uses a Buddhist canon in
Sanskrit?
(3) Beyond sectarianism
• The purpose of the DSBC is to provide a free, non-sectarian
resource for research and study
• The DSBC permits the entire Buddhist canon to be instantly
searched. This is an enormous breakthrough for scholarship
• Scholars, individuals and institutions are increasingly using the
DSBC in research
• Most research on Sanskrit Buddhist texts is now done in Japan and
Germany
• Most visitors to the DSBC’s website are from the USA
• In just two years, the website has received over a million page
impressions
• Population of areas where living religions are based directly on
Sanskrit texts:
• approx. 1.5 billion people (East Asia, Nepal)
• Population of areas where religious traditions are connected to
Sanskrit Buddhist texts:
• approx. 3 billion people (+India, Southeast Asia)
• * picture of world map with Buddhist
areas highlighted
•  
 A Classification Scheme
for the DSBC
• - The first phase of the DSBC uses three broad categories:
1. sūtras (62 texts)
• 2. śāstras (85 texts)
• 3. stotras (108 texts)
• A new classification scheme is needed:
• - to make texts easier to find
• - to convey a text’s approximate historical origin
• - to show a text’s traditional doctrinal position(s)
• The new classification scheme is being based mainly on
modern surveys:
• the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature series (Japan)
• the Systematic Survey series (Germany)
• the History of Indian Literature (Netherlands)
• Modern classifications order texts by period and author as
well as genre
 Towards a Comprehensive
Sanskrit Canon
(1): Seeking Published Texts
• There is still no up-to-date bibliography of
all published Sanskrit texts
• Gaining access to published editions of
Sanskrit texts remains difficult
• Even texts which appear in print are often
very hard to find in libraries
• Most reliable editions published are
published in the West, and their distribution
is constrained by copyright
• To incorporate these editions, resources are
needed for the time-consuming business of
copyright clearance
• Some editions can only be used through the
goodwill of their editors or publishers
 Towards a Comprehensive
Sanskrit Canon (2): Buddhist
‘Secular’ Literature
• Buddhists composed texts on subjects not directly
concerned with Buddhism:
• - Grammar (vyākaraṇa) and lexicography (koṣa)
• - Poetry (kāvya) and poetics (alaṁkāra)
• - Medicine (ayurveda), etc.
• Yet texts on ‘secular’ subjects were written in line with
Buddhist principles:
• - Smaller and clearer grammars do without Vedic forms
of Sanskrit
• - Poetics is connected with theories of meaning
• - Medicine is of practical benefit to living beings
• Historically, Buddhist institutions transmitted many
‘secular’ texts
• - Manuscript collections in Nepal and Sri Lanka are
evidence for this
• That these texts are sometimes used outside Buddhism
does not diminish the Buddhist affiliation of their ideas or
authors
 Towards a Comprehensive
Sanskrit Canon (3):
Buddhist Inscriptions
• Buddhist inscriptions in Sanskrit tell us how
Buddhism was actually practiced
• Buddhist inscriptions in Sanskrit appear as far
away as Korea, the Maldives, and Afghanistan
• Buddhist inscriptions in are also texts composed
by Buddhist authors
• These inscriptions contain language, ideas and
phrases from the Buddhist canon
• It is natural to study inscriptions along with
canonical texts
• The problems of locating, inputting and
distributing e-texts of inscriptions are similar to
those of canonical texts
 Towards a Comprehensive
Sanskrit Canon (4): Inputting from
manuscripts
• A large number of texts have still not been published
in any form
• Before modern communications and digital
photography, access to manuscripts was limited
• It is now possible to input directly from digital scans of
manuscripts
• Many unpublished texts are clearly important within
the Sanskrit tradition
• - eg. Certain avadānas, stotras, and tantras
• A census of manuscripts is needed to determine the
most important unpublished texts, and the most
reliable manuscripts
• Texts input from manuscripts will be diplomatic
transcriptions, not editions
• Transcriptions provide useful data for future editions,
and accurately reflect manuscript traditions
Picture of an old manuscript in
Sanskrit
 Plans to complete the
Sanskrit Buddhist Canon
(1): Goals
• We aim to finish the input of texts in
2010
• Feedback from scholars is sought to
improve the integrity of the DSBC
• The final step will be to publish and
distribute a CD with digital search
tools
 
 Plans to complete the Sanskrit
Buddhist Canon (2): Seeking
feedback
• Feedback from scholars and users is
sought prior to completion:
• - on any texts that should be
included that have not been (or vice
versa)
• - on the accuracy of input texts
• - on the classification of the canon
• - on digitally collating the texts
with translations in Chinese, Tibetan
and Western languages
 Plans to complete the Sanskrit
Buddhist Canon (3): Needed Resources

• Funding is still needed for the following tasks, in

order of priority:
• Accessing and inputting all remaining printed
texts
• Proofreading of texts already input
• Seeking copyright clearance for recent editions
published outside South Asia
• Creating custom digital search and study tools
for the whole canon
• Pressing and distribution of CDs for areas where
internet access is not widespread
• Long-term support for the internet presence of
the DSBC