Tipitaka Editions in Markdown Tipitaka Editions in Markdown

📖 Quick Guide

Learn how to navigate the reader, compare editions side-by-side, inspect textual variants, look up Pāḷi words, and download canonical Markdown files.

⚡ Fast Summary

  1. Open any book or sutta from the Homepage or Sidebar to read the canonical World Tipiṭaka Edition (WT). (Sidebar navigation always opens the base WT edition to guarantee structural alignment and eliminate diff errors).
  2. Select an edition tab (PTS, BJ, CST, or RT) to switch to another tradition for that text.
  3. Switch to Side-by-Side using the view mode dropdown to collate that edition against the WT base text.
  4. Toggle "Highlight Variants" to inspect text additions, changes, and omissions.
  5. Hover or tap any word for instant Pāḷi grammatical and dictionary analysis.

1. Base Text: World Tipiṭaka Edition (WT)

When you open any book (such as Pārājikapāḷi 1V) or sutta from the directory or sidebar, the reader displays the World Tipiṭaka Edition (WT) in Single View.

The WT edition (Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500) serves as the canonical baseline reference text against which variants in other traditions are compared.

🧭 Sidebar Navigation Rule: Always Base Text

Different editions frequently differ in their file splits and volume boundaries (for instance, Roman Siam Rath structures entire volumes in massive single files, while WT splits texts cleanly into chapters and suttas). To avoid volume desynchronization and misleading comparison errors, clicking any link in the sidebar always opens the base edition (WT) in clean single view. Once the text is loaded, you can freely switch editions or activate side-by-side comparison.

💡 Tip: You can hide or collapse the sidebar at any time using the toggle button next to the logo or by pressing ⌘B / Ctrl+B to maximize your horizontal reading space.

2. Side-by-Side Comparison (Enabling the Dropdown)

The reader toolbar features tabs for all 5 editions:

🌟 WT (Base) 🇬🇧 PTS 🇱🇰 BJ 🇲🇲 CST 🇹🇭 RT

How to Collator Editions Side-by-Side:

  1. Click any comparative edition tab (e.g. 🇬🇧 PTS or 🇱🇰 BJ).
  2. The View Mode dropdown will now enable the option: ⚖️ Side-by-Side (WT vs ...).
  3. Select Side-by-Side to split the screen into two synchronized panes: WT Base text on the left and the comparative edition on the right.
  4. Scrolling in either pane automatically synchronizes the counterpart pane for effortless reading.

3. Real-Time Text Variant Highlighting

When viewing comparative editions, click the ✨ Highlight Variants button in the toolbar. The reader analyzes word differences against the WT base text:

● Addition Words or phrases present in the comparative edition that are absent in WT.
● Variant / Change Orthographical or reading differences between the editions.
● Omission Words present in the WT base text that are omitted in the comparative edition (displayed with clear strikethrough).

Note: Paragraph numbers, punctuation marks, and footnote callouts are excluded from difference calculations to ensure only authentic textual variations are highlighted.

4. Section Elision & Focusing on Suttas

Some editions (like PTS, CST, BJ, or RT) group multiple suttas into large volume files. When you navigate to a specific sutta in WT (e.g. Bodhikathā in 1.1.md), the reader automatically elides irrelevant preceding and subsequent suttas in the other editions so you can compare the exact passage.

An elision banner appears at the top and bottom of the section. You can click "Show complete file" at any time to expand the full text, or toggle back to the elided view.

5. Instant Pāḷi Dictionary Lookup

Gain immediate linguistic clarity while reading:

  • Hover or Tap: Move your cursor over any word (or tap it on mobile/tablet) to see an instantaneous popover card with grammatical analysis (case, number, gender, verbal tense) and English definitions.
  • Toggle On/Off: Use the floating 📖 Dict button in the bottom corner (or the toggle in the Sidebar) to turn the dictionary popover on or off whenever you prefer uninterrupted reading.

6. Live Multi-Script Transliteration

The Tipiṭaka can be viewed in 6 scripts without altering the underlying text file:

  • 🔤 Roman (IAST)
  • 🇱🇰 Sinhala (සිංහල)
  • 🇹🇭 Thai (ไทย)
  • 🇲🇲 Burmese / Myanmar (မြန်မာ)
  • 🇮🇳 Devanagari (देवनागरी)
  • 🏛️ Brahmi (𑀩𑁆𑀭𑀸𑀳𑁆𑀫𑀻)

7. Direct Markdown Access & Offline Downloads

At the top right of the reader, four action buttons give you complete sovereignty over the text:

📄 View Markdown

Opens the raw Markdown text file in a separate browser tab.

⬇️ Download .md

Downloads the untouched, complete .md file directly to your device.

↗ GitHub

Jumps directly to the source file in its GitHub repository.

👁️ Raw View

Toggles between formatted rendering and the monospace Markdown source inline.

8. Quick Jump & Citation Lookup

Press ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) anywhere on the site to trigger the search palette.

Instantly lookup and jump to any reference across the Tipiṭaka:

  • PTS Reference Citations: Standard Pali Text Society volume & page references such as M I 1, M.i.1, D II 150, Vin III 1, S V 420, A I 1, Dhp 40, Ud 15, or Vism 120. Automatically scrolls and highlights the exact PTS page boundary.
  • World Tipiṭaka Paragraphs: Direct paragraph numbering such as 1V:0001, 6D:0189, or 9M:0301.
  • Book Codes & Titles: Search by book code (e.g. 1V, 6D, 18Dh, 32Kv) or sutta title (e.g. Brahmajāla, Sāmaññaphala, Dhammacakkappavattana).
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