Saddharma Pundarika

SR No.: 007677
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: H Kern
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1884
Total Pages: 2546
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 46 MB

Page 1376

INTRODUCTION. SU
T
I Wylist
in the last 36 folios of L15, No. 15 of the Avesta and Pahlavi manuscripts in the India Office Library in London. It commences with the words 'all the angels' in Chap. I, 4, and ends with Chap. V, 71; the handwriting being the same as that in L26, a manuscript that contains a date corresponding to A. D. 1737.
In fols. 9–16 of BM. No. 22,378 of the Additional Oriental manuscripts in the British Museum Library, there is a modern fragment of this reproduced Pahlavi text, interlined with a transliteration in the Persian character, and alternating with a Persian paraphrase. This fragment contains only Chap. I, 1-31.
The reproduced Pahlavi text also occurs, in parallel columns with the usual Pâzand and Sanskrit versions and a Persian paraphrase, in R, an imperfect polyglot manuscript given to the late Mr. J. Romer by a Dastûr in Surat. Of this foolscap-folio manuscript Mr. Romer sent pp. 16–31 (with the first fifteen pages of a Pahlavi-Persian Bundahis) to the late Professor M. J. Müller, through Mr. Poley; he also sent pp. 32–63, 82-93 to the late Professor H. H. Wilson on 3rd December 1836, who afterwards transferred them to Professor Max Müller; and he gave pp. 64–81, 99-143 to the late Mr. Norris. The first of these fragments, together with that of the Bundahis now constitute No. 10 of the Müller Collection in the State Library at Munich ; the next two fragments were presented to the India Office Library, and the two last mentioned were acquired by it, in 1876. It is most probable that the first fifteen pages of this polyglot manuscript were not given to Mr. Romer, but the first fifteen pages of the Bundahis were substituted for them. The portion extant (pp. 16–143) contains all four versions of Chaps. I, 28-V, 57, with the Sanskrit and Persian versions of Chap. I, 25-27, and the Pahlavi and Pazand versions of Chap. V, 58–62; and the latter two versions are everywhere interlined with a transliteration in Persian characters. This manuscript is modern and of no particular critical value ; but, as the combination of the four versions is rare, if not unique, it would be very desirable to discover the rest of the manuscript.
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