Letter to Ānandajoti Bhikkhu (Ancient Buddhist Texts)

Before sending

• The address anandajoti@gmail.com appears on https://ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Textual-Studies/DPPN/index.htm. The home page itself shows no email, and points to https://linktr.ee/anandajoti.
• The home page fetched for this check did not show a licence statement. Our source library lists the site as CC BY-SA 3.0; this letter asks him to confirm.
• The address anandajoti@gmail.com appears on https://ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Reference/DPPN.htm. The home page itself shows no email, and points to https://linktr.ee/anandajoti.
• The home page shows no licence statement, but the site’s Copyright Notice (https://ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Miscellaneous/Copyright-Notice.htm, May 2013) gives CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported with attribution to Ānandajoti Bhikkhu, and the footer on every page links CC BY-SA 4.0. Question 1 asks which he prefers us to cite.
• Since 1 November 2026 the tool links 153 of his pages and fetches them live with attribution (see docs/sources.md). If he asks for links only, switch off the aj: retrieval and keep the links.
• A separate letter (dppn.md) asks about the revised DPPN. The two can be merged into one email if preferred.
• Fill in the maintainer’s name and reply-to address. Only the maintainer sends this letter; agents never send it.
• After sending, update the status in README.md. Record the reply in docs/sources.md.

Letter

Subject: Your translations on Ancient Buddhist Texts in a free scripture-study tool

Dear Venerable Ānandajoti,

I maintain Pali Canon for Claude (https://github.com/DaniilKi/pali-canon-claude), a free, open-source tool that helps AI assistants such as Claude look up and quote the Pāli Canon accurately instead of paraphrasing it from memory. When someone asks about a sutta, the assistant retrieves the actual passage from a named source and gives its citation (for example “MN 10” or “M i 55”), the translator or editor, the licence and a link to the original page. The tool is a library, not a teacher: it gives no rulings on practice and does not rank teachers or traditions.

How we would use your work. We would like to add your text-and-translation editions on ancient-buddhist-texts.net as a source of English. When a reader asks for a text you have translated, the tool would fetch that one page from your site and return it with your name, the licence and a link back to the page. We would link a text to your translation only when we are sure it is the same text (we prefer no link to a wrong one), and we would never mix your translation with anyone else’s without saying so.

These safeguards apply to everything the tool returns, and we would keep them for your work:

• Attribution on every result. Each passage comes back with the source’s name, the translator or editor, the licence or terms, and a link to the original page.
• Non-commercial. The tool is free. There are no fees, paid tiers or advertising, and we do not sell or license anyone’s content. The software itself is MIT-licensed; texts keep their own terms.
• Word for word. We never edit, rewrite or generate scripture or translations. Abbreviated passages are flagged as such, and we never silently swap one translation for another.
• Not a training dataset. We do not build or supply datasets for training AI models. A passage is handed to the assistant only in the conversation where a reader asked for it, so that it can be quoted and cited correctly.
• Light, read-only access. The tool reads only from a short list of approved sites, one page at a time when a reader asks; it does not crawl.
• Your wishes come first. SuttaCentral has asked not to be used in AI tools, so we only link to it. If you would prefer the same, we will switch to links only and record your wishes publicly in our source library (https://github.com/DaniilKi/pali-canon-claude/blob/main/docs/sources.md).

What we are asking.

1. Your Copyright Notice (May 2013) gives CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported for the translations, and your page footers link CC BY-SA 4.0. Which should we cite, and are there any texts with different terms?
2. Are you comfortable with live retrieval as described? If you prefer links only, we will do that.
3. How would you like to be credited?

If it would help, I am happy to send more detail, show you the tool working, or change how your work is presented. A short reply is plenty, and “no” is a perfectly good answer: we will follow it.

With thanks and respect for your work,

[Maintainer’s name] Maintainer, Pali Canon for Claude — https://github.com/DaniilKi/pali-canon-claude Reply to: [maintainer’s email address]