REQUIREMENTS
MULTILINGUAL BHAGAVADGITA
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Gita Supersite is available for Windows, Unix/Linux and Mac Platforms.You will need a Web browser that supports frames, JavaScript and Java (such as Netscape Navigator 4.0/ Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher versions)To
view Indian Language fonts you need following versions of browsers:
For Windows
For Linux / Unix
For Macintosh
If this is your first visit to the site you may receive a Security Warning asking if you wish to install and run Bitstream WebFont Player. Please Click on "Yes" button to view the text in Indian Language fonts.
Gitarthasangraha by Sri Abhinavagupta
Gita Supersite is available
for Windows, Unix/Linux and Mac Platforms.
The Supersite uses - PHP
and MySQL.
To display Indian Language
fonts Supersite uses Dynamic Fonts - PFR from Bitstream.
Details
This site has very few static html pages. It uses server side scripting to create the html files on the fly and delivers them to the client. All the data has been logically broken up and stored in iscii format in mysql database.
There are various texts related to the Srimad Bhagvad Gita. These have been divided into chapters. The data related to each chapter is broken into sections.The basic value stored in the database corresponds to a section which can be retrieved by specifying the chapterno.,section no. and name of the text.
Fonts : This site being an Indian language site displays the texts in various Indian scripts. we are rendering the option of viewing the Sanskrit texts in 11 different scripts. For each script to show up properly on the browser appropriate fons have to be used.We are using the fonts made by CDAC . The names of the various Indian language fonts used in our site are listed below :
|
Language
|
Name
of font
|
| Devnagari | DV-TTYogesh |
| assamese | AS-TTDurga |
| bengali | BN-TTDurga |
| gujarati | GJ-TTAvantika |
| kannada | KN-TTUma |
| malayalam | ML-TTKarthika |
| oriya | OR-TTSarala |
| punjabi | PN-TTAmar |
| roman | DV1-TTYogesh |
| tamil | TM-TTValluvar |
| telugu | TL_TTHemlatha |
We have provided dynamic fonts on all our sites so that the client need not explicitly download the fonts.These dynamic fonts are loaded with the page itself on the client side. For providing dynamic fonts, we have PFR files for each font.There are various tools available to make PFR files of the required fonts. Each PFR file is about 30-35 KB in size. Click here to find how we have made the PFRs.
The dynamic fonts are not supported by all operating systems and all browsers.Hence, we have also provided the font files which can be downloaded and installed by the user.Click here to find out how to install fonts on windows as well as linux.
Server side and client side programming : We have used some java script for client side and php scripts,C,C++ for server side. Whatever requests are sent by the client, all are querried from the databases through php scripts. These iscii data strings are then passed through a C program which puts the appropriate font tags and converts from iscii to the isfoc of the language chosen by the client. Then the php scripts create the html page complete with the pfr of the font, the audio files and send it to the client.
Audio : The audio files for the site are in mp3 format. This format is a non-streaming format.The file is first downlo0aded and then played.Some information about the audio files on our site is :
Average file size -- 30 Kb
Format -- mp3
Attributes -- 16 MHz (Sample Rate)
-- 16
bits (bit depth)
-- Mono (Channel)
The client needs to download the Real player to be able to hear the audio.
As this Supersite grows, we plan to include more commentaries on the Bhagavadgita. The classical Sanskrit commentaries by Madhva, Vallabha, Madhusudana, Sridhara and the Marathi commentary by Jnaneswara will be put up soon. Integration of this Supersite with the ISCII Search
Engine, developed at IIT Kanpur.vedantavaatika.orgOther sites planned are:brahmasutra.org that will carry the Brahma Sutra of Badrayana with the commentary of Shankara and translations in Hindi and English.sankara.org that will have the complete works of Adi Shankaracharya.ramcharitmanas.org
will display Sri Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, with a detailed Index and Search facility. A site on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with the Bhashya by Vyasa and Bhoja Vritti is also in the pipeline.
Most of these texts have already been typed in. We welcome help with proof-reading! Any suggestions for modifying, improving or adding to the site are also welcome.
ADVAITA ASHRAMA
CENTRAL CHINMAYA MISSION TRUST
DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
GITA PRESS, GORAKHPUR
SRI VENKATESWARA UNIVERSITY, TIRUPATI
AUDIO :
This website has been built as part of a larger effort to create a series of websites based on Indian philosophical texts. Our team works under a project in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. If you are interested in knowing more about why we do this work and who we are, read on …
The Work
Brief History
The Team
Others Who Helped
Current
Sponsors
What we wish to do is to:
1. create a repository of Indian philosophical texts on the Internet, and to make these freely available to whoever is interested.
2. create tools as well as a process that will make the putting up of such texts on the web simple.
3. explore the different ways in which the content can be presented, in order to enhance the study of these texts.Our major website is the Gita Supersite. It is not only the first site that we have built, but even today, a large part of our collective effort is spent in improving this site. We see this website as representative of all our work, and also as a model of how we think such work should be done.
The seeds of this work were planted in the pre-Internet days with a project undertaken by Dr. T.V. Prabhakar, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, funded by the Chinmaya International Foundation (1989). A DOS version of Swami Chinmayananda’s book, The Holy Geeta was hyperised and published as Geeta Vaatika (1992), perhaps the first electronic book in India. After the emergence of Internet standards, Geeta Vaatika was redone in HTML (1996).
As the World Wide Web grew, the Government of India (Department of Electronics) funded a project that continued this work. Work began on the Gita Supersite , which included multiple commentaries and translations of the Bhagavadgita. A website was designed and built, with the programming (business logic) initially all on the client side.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Information Technology was born out of the Department of Electronics, and Resource Centres for Indian Language Technology Solutions were established throughout the country. Under one such Resource Centre established at IIT Kanpur, work on the Gita Supersite has continued. The technology was extensively reworked and the content was converted into a database, with all the business logic on the server side. Currently work is going on to convert the data into a font-independent ISCII database, streamline the programs, improve the audio content, add many more commentaries on the Bhagavadgita and provide additional features on the site.
Meanwhile, the idea of building Heritage Websites related to Indian philosophical texts emerged. A series of websites were planned, including the Upanishads (to include 12 major Upanishads with Sankara’s commentaries and translations in English & Hindi), Brahma Sutra, Complete Works of Sankara, Ramcharitmanas and the Yoga Sutra. Data-entry for all these websites is almost complete and extensive proofreading is underway.
The experience of building websites in Indian languages was shared with others and a bi-lingual site was designed and built for the Uttar Pradesh Trade Tax Corporation , Government of India. A site on the life and works of the contemporary sage, Paramhans Rammangaldasji was also built. Moving in another direction, an all-Hindi site on disease-information and health, Bimari-Jankari was created.
T.V. PRABHAKAR (Professor, IIT Kanpur). tvp@iitk.ac.in
TVP is the heart of the group. Together with VC, he began this work many years ago and, kept it alive and going, even in the occasional absence of official funding. Passionate about learning and teaching, he stays abreast of the latest on technology. Also passionate about Indian philosophy: appears “inspired” to work on the Bhagavadgita and Upanishads, often against great odds!HARISH C. KARNICK (Professor, IIT Kanpur). hk@iitk.ac.in
HK took over the group’s leadership when TVP went on a years’ leave. Putting in enormous energy and remaining accessible to the group at all times, he has moved the work towards a major consolidation of effort. The project is now unthinkable without him.T. ARCHNA. archna@iitk.ac.in
Archna is the Subject Specialist in the group and directs the content, interface and features of the websites. Would rather be an out-of-work-philosopher than be employed in any other capacity. But is interested in exploring technology to see how its use can enhance the study of philosophical texts. She has a huge number of ideas and the technology group can hardly keep pace with them.MURAT DHWAJ SINGH. murat@cse.iitk.ac.in
MD is the senior programmer in the group, having worked to build the first version of the Gita Supersite. Quiet and unassuming, he has picked up enormous experience in putting up Indian language websites. His non-confrontationist attitude helps keep peace when tempers run high!RAJNI MOONA. rajnimoona@cse.iitk.ac.in
Dynamic workaholic, Rajni provides the energy to consolidate the groups’ work, churning out and testing programs faster than anyone else. Additionally, has the desire and capacity to learn from others, so makes a great team player too.RAJEEV BHATIA. rajeevkb@iitk.ac.in
Rajeev is the local wizard on data-entry and proofreading. The accuracy and speed of his typing, both in English and Devanagari are truly remarkable, and his keen eyes catch errors that the proofreaders miss. Over the years, Rajeev has quietly made himself indispensable to the group.SAURABH KUMAR. srbkr@iitk.ac.in
The latest recruit, Saurabh has joined the group mainly to test our sites and software. His major assets are his active participation in the group, willingness to learn and a charming smile!
DR. VINEET CHAITANYA vc@iiit.net (VC) was the driving force behind the Geeta Vaatika, as well as the inspiration for the Gita Supersite. Now he watches our activities from IIIT Hyderabad, and is still one of the few who truly understand the spirit behind this work.
NAGARAJU PAPPU, the first one, wrote 100,000 lines of c-code for the initial versions of Geeta Vaatika. His DOS version had more features than the current HTML one!
Apart from the current team, those who have contributed to the growth of these websites in a major way include:
K. Anil Kumar, Anvita Bajpai, Ashutosh Sharma, Gita Pathak, K. Ravi Kiran, Rohit Patwardhan, Samudra Gupta, Shrikant Trivedi and Tripti Singh.
This work is currently being done as part of the activities of the Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. The Resource Centres are funded by the Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India under its programme, Technology Development for Indian Languages. We gratefully acknowledge their financial assistance.
