[Advaita-l] Tampering of ancient texts.

[D.V.N.Sarma డి.వి.ఎన్.శర్మ]

Here I am concerned only with preserving whatever is available.
My point is we should not simply remove whatever does not suit
somebody or some group. Critical editions show only that which
they think is the original version without discarding the other portions
completely. They keep those portions there and if somebody later finds
them genuine he can reincorporate them.

regards,
Sarma.

On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 11:11 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <
sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear Sharmaji,
>
> Permit to draw the attention of yours and the other members to the
> following facts and you can draw your own conclusion as to how effective
> the preparation of the critical editions have been and whether it caused
> harm to the ancient texts or done any good.
>
> Dr Sukhtankar, the Chief editor of the Critical edition of the Mahabharata
> (BORI project) was instrumental giving the guidelines as to the criteria to
> be adopted in including (ie.retaining) and  excluding (ie.removing) the
> verses. Before his death Dr. Sukhtankar went to Asiatic Society in Bombay
> (Mumbai) to deliver a four-part series of lecture on the Mahabharata. He
> delivered three parts of that on three consecutive days and he passed away
> in the morning of the fourth day before he could deliver the fourth part.
> After his death the Asiatic Society brought out the Four-prt lecture in the
> form of a small book with an editorial comment, where the Editor lamented
> that in the lecture Dr. Sukhtankar negated all the editorial policies,
> which he held during the preparation of the Critical edition and he (Dr.
> Sukhtankar)  validated many of the discarded verses.
>
>
> However the damage was already done.
>
> Regards,
>
> Sunil KB
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: D.V.N.Sarma డి.వి.ఎన్.శర్మ <dvnsarma at gmail.com>
> To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 9:10 PM
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Tampering of ancient texts.
>
> Critically editing the ancient texts is necessary and a number of
> ancient texts have been critically edited. BORI Mahabharata and
> Baroda Ramayana are examples of such critical editions. In these
> editions if a portion is removed because the editors consider it as
> extrapolated, they mention it and give the portion removed separately
> for future reference.
>
> But lately I am aware that some publishers including some reputed ones
> are simply omitting certain passages because they think that they reflect
> badly on hinduism. This is a silly and futile attempt because most of our
> ancient texts are available in their full form in libraries
> of western countries
> and we will only be exposing our weakness and academic dishonesty. I think
> that
> this is a very important issue and the members of this forum should express
> their opinions about this.
>
>
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-- 
regards,
Sarma.