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Śramaṇa, Vol 56, No. 1-6/January-June 2005
your own body; look up (at it) every day like a dear friend; tie (it) up like a prisoner with strong string, and always think (of it) like the name of god; if one follows this the book will never come to grief."
108 :
The numbering of manuscript boxes in libraries (bhaṇḍāras)
The manuscript boxes were either numbered in a serial order or given the name of one of the twenty-four Tirthankaras. If there were more than twenty-four, the following boxes were also named after twenty Viharamāna Tīrthankaras (those dwelling in the Mahāvideha region as defined in Jaina cosmology). These boxes were traditionally kept in wooden cupboards. Nowadays these have been replaced with steel cupboards.
The formatting of manuscripts
The traditional method of formatting a manuscript was to divide the folio into two or three columns with vertical lines. The space between the columns was reserved for the string-holes. The large surface of the paper made it possible to incorporate commentaries with the main text in the manuscripts. There were two main ways of doing this. Either the main text was written in the middle of the folio and the commentary in the upper and lower margins - this was called tripatha, or 'three texts formatting'. Or the main text was surrounded by the commentary on all four sides, which was referred to as pañcapāṭha, or 'five texts formatting'. Sometimes the text and commentary were written on alternate lines. The text and the commentary were always accommodated around the roundels.
In the case of an illustrated manuscript, blank spaces were left for the painting. Scribal notes or legends in the margin indicated the subject of the illustration, or sometimes a small quick sketch was drawn in the margin to indicate the theme of the painting for the artist. Such quick but fine sketches can be seen only in manuscripts of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The artists always used the full height of the folio for the painting. Sometimes the name of the text is also mentioned on the top corner of the left hand margin. For Private & Personal Use Only
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