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THE GANDHARI PRAKRIT VERSION OF
THE RHINOCEROS SŪTRA
J.C.WRIGHT* The earliest South Asian manuscripts, dating from about the first century AD, have been preserved in eastern Afghanistan, thanks to a local practice of interring them in jars when well past their prime. The Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project of the British Library and University of Washington (Seattle) has undertaken the task of unrolling, reconstructing, and deciphering some of these congealed birch-bark scrolls in Kharoshti script and Gandhari Prakrit orthography. Following closely upon his preliminary description of the British Library collection in Ancient Buddhist scrolls from Gandhāra (Seattle and London, 1999), Richard Salomon has provided an edition together with excellent facsimile photographs, of one of the best preserved texts, a set of verses corresponding to Khaggavisāṇasutta, the Rhinoceros Sūtra' of Khuddakanikāya.
The survival of much of an Uddāna, which for once provides a catchword index of each and every verse, and the use of fibre-optic light to reveal a few obscured syllables, have made possible a painstaking reconstruction of this Gandhari 'Khargavişāņa' text, relatively complete save for the disintegration of the third pāda of most verses (where textual variation is particularly prevalent). It differs strikingly from the Pali 1. Richard Salomon, A Gandhāri version of the Rhinoceros Sūtra: British Library Kharosthi Fragment 5B. With a contribution by Andrew Glass. (Gandhäran Buddhist Texts, 1), Seattle and London, 2000. Mr. Glass has contributed an imprtant analysis of Kharoshti written forms. Studies of fragments corresponding to texts from Ekottarāgama, Dharmapada, Avadana, and Abhidharma are currently being prepared by other participants in the project.
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