I thought I would use today’s post to go over some of the projects I am currently working on. At the moment, I am in the last few months of writing up my PhD thesis “Buddhism and Grammar in Twelfth Century Sri Lanka”, though, as always, I am finding time to work on/procrastinate with some other projects that interest me.
I am in the middle of translating a medieval Pali poem called the “Telakaṭāhagāthā” (Lit. The Cauldron of Oil Verses) alongside my dear friend Aleix Ruiz Falqués. This poem has been fantastic to translate and I hope Aleix and I can push on, write a lengthy introduction, and find a publisher for this work before September.
In addition, I have begun work on creating a comprehensive Pali reader for intermediate students of Pali, one that will include prose, poetry, commentarial, and sub-commentarial literature. It will aim to introduce the student of Pali to the various styles of Pali found across its long history. In addition, I hope to write a short grammar of Pali that will accompany this reader.
A good Pali reader has been long desired by students. I enjoyed carrying Dines Andersen’s A Pali Reader (1917) for most of my time as an undergraduate and I must have read it countless times. However, the passages Andersen chooses are not representative of the huge diversity of language found in the canon and also commentarial literature is ignored. Much the same can be said for the recent Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader by Glenn Wallis (2010). The latter work has been recently reviewed in Buddhist Studies Review (28.2 2011) by Tomoyuki Kono.
February 16, 2012 at 9:10 am
Hi Alastair, I am glad to read you are working with Aleix on this interesting project.
May I ask you why you feel that one needs a Pāli grammar? You explain convincingly the need for a Pāli reader, but you do not touch on this issue.
March 2, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Sorry for getting back to this quite late Elisa, I had to take some time away from the blogosphere. I thought a grammar specific to the texts in the reader would be a good idea since it is a bit cumbersome for a beginner to juggle a reader and grammar while working. Also, Geiger’s grammar is quite hard to navigate for the beginner and so sections on grammar specific to the passages in the reader would be helpful.
March 3, 2012 at 10:50 pm
I see, thank you for the explanation and good luck with your project. It is great to see young scholars undertaking ambitious tasks.