Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Project

University of the West

Introduction
The Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon (DSBC) website, hosted at the University of The West and input at the Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods (NIEM), has come online. The site includes dozens of e-texts formatted in both Roman and Devanagari Unicode. The mission of DSBC Input project is to save the disappearing books containing great ideas of Buddhist philosophical principals and then make these books and ideas accessible to the world at large. More significantly, the site represents an ambitious, though rudimentary, attempt to devise a modern Buddhist 'canon' in Sanskrit. The creation of such a canon is not merely a textualist's or antiquarian's conceit: Sanskrit is still the primary canonical language of Newar Buddhism of Nepal.

Manuscript written in wooden plate Thus this Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon aims to fill a living need for online access to, and propagation of, the basic texts in lieu of any alternative. The UWest/NIEM Canon is perhaps best seen as a tentative step towards the formulation of a Buddhist canon in Sanskrit which is properly categorized, textually sound, and sufficiently inclusive and propagated both digitally and in print. The Contents of the site can be divided into four broad categories. 1. Sutras: containing 77 Mahayana sutras including Jataka, Avadanas of Buddhas past life and King Asoka, and Dharanis 2. Shastras: containing 107 titles of works by Indian Buddhist Masters

3. Stotras: containing 108 Buddhist Sanskrit hymns on various subjects 4. Tantras: containing 6 famous Buddhist Tantras We have completed input of 17000 pages of texts. We still have 30,000 pages to go including Tantric Buddhist texts. UWest Sanskrit Buddhist canon namely DSBC has been the largest data base in the world on Buddhist Sanskrit texts since its inception in the year 20032009. A goal such as this, were it to ever be achieved, would require dozens of specialists across the globe, committing themselves more or less fully for many years. Although there are some organizations dealing with Sanskrit texts such as Titus Group in Germany and so forth, they deal with some specific Buddhist texts and Hindu texts only .On other hand; UWest canon has the most comprehensive data base on the Buddhist Sanskrit Tripitaka. Hundreds of visitors on the web are utilizing our online texts daily for their personal and academic researches. Although Buddhism disappeared from its Indian homeland hundreds of years ago, many of its sacred texts were preserved in Nepal. The Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon is an ambitious project to offer the original intellectual and spiritual heritage of Buddhism in digital form. The University of the West has been instrumental in sponsoring this Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon project by filling up the gap in digitizing and preserving unique Sanskrit Buddhist textual heritage which was almost disappearing from the Buddhist world. Currently over two hundred scriptures are freely offered at our website (http://www.uwest.edu/sanskritcanon/).

Rare Manuscripts

Global Significance
The Sanskrit scriptures of Buddhism are authorities for the majority of the worlds Buddhists, namely those in India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet and Nepal, as well as Taiwan and much of Southeast Asia. The DSBC has generated enormous interest in these countries, as well as among scholars in the United States and Europe. Many of the scriptures offered by DSBC are difficult or practically impossible to find in libraries or through the usual research methods. The DSBCs texts are not only instantly accessible via the internet, but can also be searched and indexed instantaneously. The digitization of Sanskrit Buddhist texts was considered a desirable but distant goal for many years. The DSBCs unique expertise, together with the generosity of its sponsors, turned this dream into a reality for the first time. The DSBCs work to date will enable rapid advances in the study of Buddhism, philosophy, culture and other fields of the humanities.

Asian Countries
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Help us Complete a Successful Project Since coming online in 2005, the DSBC has attracted a steadily growing base of users. The DSBC website serves thousands of visitors every month from all over the world. To give one indication of its importance, Gttingen University in Germany requested and received permission to host a large portion of the DBSC on its internet servers. The response has been very positive, and now our users are looking forward to the completion of the project. Much has been achieved, but much remains to be done, and further funding is needed. Financial assistance is sought for: - The identification and input of 30,000 pages of texts not yet in the DSBC; - The reorganization and classification of the completed canon; - The provision of easy-to-use search and study tools; - Long-term support for the DSBCs internet presence.

Input Staffs in Nepal Our goal of open access to this treasury of human wisdom can be realized with your support. Donations may be assigned to specific texts or resources, and are gratefully acknowledged within the DSBC itself. Contact: Dr. C. F. Lee President
UNIVERSITYOFTHEWEST 1409N.WALNUTGROVEAVE.,ROSEMEAD,CA91770,USA TEL:(626)5718811FAX:(626)5711413EMAIL:president@uwest.edu