The original manuscripts used in the editing of Tiffin Lectures are listed below under the Archival collection in which each is housed. There follows a prose explanation of the relation between these various sources.
The Manuscripts in the Collections
Archives of the Avatar Meher Baba P. P. C. Trust, Ahmednagar, India
“Chanji’s Diary no. 19” (ChD 19), a handwritten diary.
“Chanji’s Diary no. 20” (ChD 20), a handwritten diary. A very minor source, ChD 20 provides
sources for the lectures of 6th and 22nd February 1927.
“Chanji’s Diary no. 29” (ChD 29), a handwritten diary.
“Chanji’s Diary no. 35” (ChD 35), a handwritten diary.
“Chanji’s Diary no. 57 pt. 1” (ChD 57), a handwritten diary, and by far the most important original handwritten source for Tiffin Lectures. ChD 57 provides source material for about half of the lectures. Often what we find in this diary are raw notes in English or Gujarati; on many occasions, this material appears again in this same diary a second time, revised by Chanji and translated to English (when the original was in Gujarati). As a manuscript ChD 57 presents many problems to a textual editors; for a review of these, along with a full description of the manuscript, see comments in “Establishing the Text of Tiffin Lectures,”pp. 445–48 in Tiffin Lectures, as well as Appendix 2 , esp. pp. 481–85 .
Many of the pages of ChD 57 contain material that Chanji apparently did not select for inclusion in “Thursday Tiffin Lectures” (TTL); and accordingly it has been left out of the published book. Nonetheless, all 216 pages of the diary are included here.
“Chanji’s Diary no. 57 pt.2” (Chd 57)
“Chanji’s Diary no. 62 pt.1” (ChD 62), a diary with mostly handwritten but a few typed pages. A major source second in importance only to ChD 57. As Appendix 2 describes it (pp. 485–86), Chanji’s Diary no. 62 is “a disordered, heterogeneous gallimaufry of unbound loose sheets and bifoliums, some typed and some handwritten, spanning a period of two decades; all of this was at some stage collected into a single folder, and hence it has gained the designation of a diary with a diary number. Material comes in all types; no organizing principle, either in the selection or arrangement of material, immediately suggests itself. It contains 312 folios, some of them with writing (or typing) on both the recto and verso sides of sheets and others with writing on one side only. The diary as a whole will need extended further study before its contents are adequately understood.”
Yet scattered through this mass of material are some crucial source pages for Tiffin Lectures, a few typed but most handwritten. These particular pages are included here.
“Chanji’s Diary no. 63” (ChD 63), a handwritten diary. This diary from a much later date does not pertain to any of the actual talks in Tiffin Lectures but rather to a discussion in Appendix 3, pp. 498–99
“Chanji’s handwritten source pages for the Lonavala Lectures” (recently discovered and still uncatalogued).These pages in the Archives of the Avatar Meher Baba Trust were discovered after the editing and design of Tiffin Lectures was almost complete and when the book was almost ready for print production. For these reasons the manuscript has not yet been properly studied or catalogued. Nonetheless, the relevant pages are reproduced below.
These pages comprise the original diary source for the manuscript entitled “Lonavala Lectures from the Beloved Archives” (LLBA). The content of these diary pages have been reproduced there almost exactly and without revision.
“The Combined Diary, Volume 1” (ComD 1), a handwritten diary.
“The Combined Diary,Volume 2” (ComD 2), a handwritten diary.
“The Combined Diary,” Volume 1 and 2 are the most polished and significant of all the original diaries covering this period in Meher Baba’s life, “The Combined Diary,” though frequently referenced especially in the editorial introductions to lectures, has rarely served as a primary source. The links below are only to those pages directly quoted in Tiffin Lectures.
For a short further description of the manuscript see Tiffin Lectures, p. 450.
“Tiffin Lecture Draft Pages from the David Fenster Collection” Pt.1 (TLD/DF), typed drafts of nineteen lectures. This collection of typed manuscripts comprises an earlier draft for the lectures from 3rd June through 28th July that were retyped (with minimal changes) in “Thursday Tiffin Lectures.” The typescripts in this collection are extremely similar to those in “Tiffin Lecture Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection.” (single, draft A, draft B, draft C) Probably these two batches of material were typed at the same time as a part of the same typing project in the Meherabad ashram.
“Tiffin Lecture Draft Pages from the David Fenster Collection” Pt.2
For further information see Tiffin Lectures, pp. 440–41 and 478–80.
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures”Pt.1 (TTL), a complete typed draft. This 174-page typed manuscript is the top-sheet copy of the most-finished draft of the “Tiffin Lectures” manuscript. Because its many lacunae have not been filled in, the carbon copy, “Thursday Tiffin Lectures from the Filis Frederick Collection” (TTL/FF), which has been made complete through handwritten additions, has been preferred as the primary source for Tiffin Lectures.
For a fuller description of this manuscript, see Tiffin Lectures, pp. 425–33.
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures” pt.2
The Filis Frederick Collection, housed in Mariposa, California
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection” Pt.1(TLD/FF)
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection” Pt.2
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection” Pt.3
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection” Pt.4
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection Pt.1” (TLD/FF), draft A
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection Pt.2”
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection Pt.1” (TLD/FF), draft B
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection Pt.2”
“Tiffin Lectures Draft Pages from the Filis Frederick Collection” (TLD/FF), draft C
Like “Tiffin Lecture Draft Pages from the David Fenster Collection,” the typescripts in this extensive collection are drafts that were probably copied over in “Thursday Tiffin Lectures.”All of the lectures in that final compilation of Chanji’s are found here, sometimes in two and even three different drafts.
For further information see Tiffin Lectures, pp. 433–40 and 478–80
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures from the Filis Frederick Collection pt.1” (TTL/FF), a complete typed draft in carbon copy. This manuscript has served as the primary source for Tiffin Lectures.
This is the carbon copy of “Thursday Tiffin Lectures” in which the gaps and lacunae have been filled in. For this reason, it has served as the primary direct source for Tiffin Lectures.
For further description see Tiffin Lectures, pp. 433–40.
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures from the Filis Frederick Collection pt.2”
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures from the Filis Frederick Collection pt.3”
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures from the Filis Frederick Collection pt.4”
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures from the Filis Frederick Collection pt.5”
“Thursday Tiffin Lectures from the Filis Frederick Collection pt.6”