Vajirasara- Pali Text in Devanagari, Roman and Telugu Scripts with English Diastrics with English Translation

Vajirasara' is an exceptional work in the Pall language, which describes the Buddha's words in a magical way. Buddhist moral principles, points of religious doctrines, etymology, poetics, cosmology, riddles, etc. are described in this Pali text in a beautiful manner. This Pall manuscript was edited by Prof. C. Upendra Rao, an eminent scholar in the field of Pall. Sanskrit and Indic Studies. He transliterated the Pall text into Devanagari and Telugu scripts and translated it into English with explanations. Its style of presentation is impressive, following the ancient Indian style of Camatkara poems. Nineteen chapters of this Pall text are filled with riddles, grammatical notions, double meanings, acrosties, etc. The composition of this text underlying each section is mainly based on the literary mechanisms and poetic games. All verses in the Pall text explain the hidden meanings of three Pitaka L.e. Suttanta. Vinaya and Abhidhamma, thus the text seems to be a brief guide to Tripitaka. Venerable LvEm (PreasSirisammativongEm) had translated it from Pall to Khmer. The present edition of the Vajirasara is largely based on his Pall text of "Vajirasara', which was first published in the year of 1952, in Cambodia in Khmer script. The text was published with the Khmer translation, done by Venerable Vinayadhara Pin in, who was the chief monk at the Maha Khetavana pagoda (situated in Kandal province of Cambodia).

Vajirasara is a comprehensive Pall work where the technique of camatkara was developed by providing a scholarly background to the living tradition of Buddhism. The text became Interesting with the literary talent of the author. Thus the text Vajirasara stands as a centralizing treatise of elements transmitted from ancient times. Certainly the Vajirasara increases the better understanding between Buddhist practices and Buddhist learning.

Prof. Dr. C. Upendra Rao is a prominent scholar in Pall, Sanskrit, and Indic Studies. He is the Senior Professor in the School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi, and teaches Pall and Sanskrit. As a Chairperson of Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies at J N U., Prof. Rao has served the university in various ways and was appointed as a Visiting professor on ICCR Chair of Buddhist Studies, Govt. of India in Cambodia. He has extensively written and published research papers and books in Sanskrit, Pall, Hindi, Telugu, and English and authored 25 books on Indic Studies, including the Pall, and received awards and certificates of honors from various institutions in India and abroad.

He was a visiting professor in the Latvia University, Riga, Latvia, Europe; National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine: L N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan; Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University, Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Department of History. Belarus State University, Minsk. Belarus: Hue Quang Buddhist Monastery, Hochiminh city, Vietnam, South East Asia. He delivered lectures and Presented several papers at international conferences held in Foreign Countries, and was associated with the translation project from the Khyentse Foundation as part of the 'Buddhist Literary Heritage Project' (BLHP) to translate the "Arya Pita Putra Samvadasutra." He is serving various educational institutions as a member of their academic bodies.

The Vajirasara (Diamond-Essence) is an exceptional and important work in the Pali literary landscape, which describes the Buddha's words in a most efficient and magical literary form. This Pali text was composed in northern Thailand in the 16th century A. D. But if you search for the text today, it is almost absent from the catalogues, of the literature of the Thailand. The handwritten primary sources are difficult to locate; and its information is not much available in the secondary literature. Only Khmer source, namely a critical edition of the text (Preas Siri Sammativong Em, 1952) deals with the subject matter of this text. Yet some scholars have pointed out that few manuscripts of Vajirasära are available in Thailand's libraries.

**Contents and Sample Pages**