[INDOLOGY] 20th anniversary of the Muktabodha digital library and KSTS series.

[Harry Spier]

I would also like to acknowledge  the Ecole Francaise D'Extreme Orient and
the Institut Francaise de Pondichery for their partnership in adding the
the 1144 paper transcripts of the IFP to the Muktabodha digital library.
These were added in 2007. In particular I'd like to acknowledge Dominic
Goodall  who was project manager on their behalf and Deviprasad Mishra who
was in charge of cataloguing. Deviprasad Mishra is also the IFP project
manager for the latest collaboration with the IFP, the transcription of 75
Shaivite texts.

Thank you,
Harry Spier


On Sat, Nov 18, 2023 at 10:53 AM Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear list members,
>
> Two weeks ago was the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Muktabodha
> digital library.  On Nov. 7, 2003 the online library was launched with the
> 75 volumes of the KSTS series that were then out of copyright.
>
> At that time no single library (at least in the USA) had a complete set of
> the KSTS series, not even the Library of Congress. I would take the bus
> from a small town about 75 miles from New York City and commute in to the
> city and photocopy the copies in the New York Public Library , usually 4 or
> 5 volumes each trip, a page at a time.  Some of these volumes were
> literally falling apart.  After each trip I'd scan each page into
> Muktabodha's computer.  The New York Public Library would find out for me,
> which libraries had the volumes they were missing and get them for me by
> inter-library loan.
>
> One thing we discovered was that when the KSTS volumes were originally
> printed in Kashmir, some mistakes were made in the volume numbers and some
> volume numbers were never used. One volume was originally printed with the
> wrong volume number. The printers then overwrote this by hand with the
> correct volume number (only in some cases). So not only did no single
> library have all volumes, but even the library of congress had errors in
> its cataloguing of the series.  In case its still of use to anyone or of
> historical interest, I'm attaching the document I created at that time with
> the correct title and volume information for the KSTS series.
>
> In the announcement of the launch of the Muktabodha digital library to the
> Indology list on Nov. 7, 2003 we wrote: * . . . Muktabodha plans
> subsequently to make available in the form of digital images thousands of
> texts, primarily from the Shaiva, Shakta, and Vedic traditions ... *
> Through grace and hard work we were able to accomplish that task.
>
> Thank you,
> Harry Spier
>
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