Quotation of the Day for September 17, 2015
"Finally, what I found particularly interesting was the manner in which the manuscript ends: with a curse. At the end of the colophon (folio 3v), it warns of misfortune, in the form of therimorphic transformation, that will befall anyone who attempts to steal the manuscript. The colophon reads:
"duhksena likhitam grahantam jah ccaure niyate jadi sukari tasya ma ca pita tasya ca gardhavah
"'If whatever thief steals this manuscript, written with such effort, then his mother turns into a pig and his father a donkey.'
"My first, rather humorous, response to reading this proclamation, which serves as a kind of preventative curse, was to reflect upon the nature of digital manuscripts: Does the curse apply to the dissemination of photographic images of the manuscript as electronic files? Would the Creative Commons Agreement protect me from the prophetic force of the incantation? I concluded, and reassured the superstitious side of my brain, that my parents are resting firm in their anthropomorphic bodies yet still: the intent and power of the curse likely applies to the physical manuscript, which remains safely in Comilla, even as digital copies can be consulted from anywhere in the world."
- Benjamin J. Fleming, Cataloger of Indic Manuscripts at the Kislak Center and Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.
[https://pennrare.wordpress.com/2015/08/06/catalogs-colophons-and-curses-from-the-ramamala-library-in-bangladesh/]
Submitted by: Bob Bruhin
Sep. 9, 2015
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