Manuscript

Pedagogical Buddhist text with long passages of liturgical Pali and commentary in Northern Thai, possibly written by a novice or former novice named Ruan and probably used for sermons. In Northern Thai and Pali (Lanna). Written in 4-6 lines per leaf. Foliated with numerals, 1-15. Leaves of palm leaf with two central holes approximately 16 cm apart; most leaves have some chipping or breaking around holes or along edges. Probably written in the 1740s in Nan Province, Thailand. Two lateral holes with tie cord. Black powder rubbed into incised letters. Some chipping away of edges on parts of first few folios, which does not interfere with text. Worm holes in very few places, but these only partially destroy some of the letters. The lateral hole on the right has been greatly enlarged by a worm hole. The quality of the leaves has forced the scribe to do a number of unusual things: 1)Some lines are not spaced evenly as the scribe was trying to avoid a section of leaf (e.g.,ff.2 verso, 3 verso, 5 recto and verso, and 7 recto); 2) in some cases it appears that a space was left between two sections of continuos text in order to avoid a section of leaf (e.g., ff.2 recto, line 2 and 11 recto, line 1). It is not clear, however, whether some of these spaces in the text are due to the leaf or are making a natural division in the text (e.g.,ff.2 recto, line 4 and 15 recto, line 2). F.11 recto, line 1 has left a space in the text definitely in order to make a division. A colophon is present. The script is neat, but has some akward appearance nevertheless.