Revision of the MBh files

[Muneo TOKUNAGA]

>From Muneo Tokunaga,

Dear List Members,

After finishing my work on a new critical edition of the
BRhaddevataa, which will be published in December from
Kyoto, I want to come back to my work on epic meters.

Last time I digitalized the whole texts of the Mahaabhaarata
and the RaamaayaNa, which I suppose many of you already have
in your disks, just for my own purposes, viz., for metrical
analysis of the epic zlokas. the result of which has been
published in Memoirs of the Faculty of Letters, Kyoto
University, No.34 (1995). By demand from many corners of the
world, however, I laid the files, though I knew they were
not completely ready for everybody's use in many points,
before the public a few years ago.

Since those files were prepared only for my own purpose, I
did not take into consideration other usages than my
metrical analysis, in transliterating the text. Therefore the
files were not universally welcomed (partly due to
misunderstanding of the nature of my text).

My next plan of study is to analyze all the TriSTubh verses
of the Mahaabhaarata, which will be more difficult but also
more fascinating a job than working on zlokas. In the course
of my analysis of TriSTubh verses, I intend to make a total
revision and correction of the whole digitalized text of the
Mahaabhaarata, reading the text to my ability.

This time I would like to invite beforehand from users of
the epic files comment and advice as to the preparation of a
new version of the epic files. Perhaps I cannot satisfy all
your needs but I try to incorporate valuable comment as much
as possible for the new edition of the files.  So you are
welcome to send me directly or through Indology your
suggestion on transliteration, etc. of the text. (I will
consider any comment carefully but I cannot reply to all of
you individually.)

I like computer and I cannot do my daily job with
digitalized files of Sanskrit texts. But I am basically
printed-text-oriented. In other words, I am using
digitalized texts mainly as a tool for finding word,
phrases, parallel passages, namely, as an Index. I am not
interested in a file which replaces a printed text. (I
always confirm the passage in the printed edition after
checking a passage in a digitalized text.) I will not change
this principle in the next version of the epic files. Within
this condition, I welcome any comment or suggestion from you
for the improvement of the digitalized text of the
Mahaabhaarata.

Hopefully, the job will take a year or so. As soon as it is
done, I will hand them to Dr. Wujastyk for public
circulation.

                     

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                                   Muneo TOKUNAGA
                           Professor of Indian Philosophy 
                    Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University
                      Kyoto, Japan (606-01) Tel: 075-753-2778
                          email: mtokunag at bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp
                   ===============================================