Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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BUDDHIST STUDIES IN THE WEST
In 1821 the Danish linguist Rasmus Kristian Rask (1787-1832) visited Ceylon and collected many Pāli and Sinhalese manuscripts. Rask studied there Pāli and Sinhalese with the assistance of B. Clough. He also wrote a Pāli grammar which was largely based upon the Bālāvatāra but this was never published. His manuscript collection made Copenhagen one of the most important centres of Pāli studies in Europe. The Pāli manuscripts were described by N. L. Westergaard (1815-1878) in collaboration with Friedrich von Spiegel in the catalogue of the Indian manuscripts of the Royal Library: Codices indici Bibliothecae Regiae Havniensis, Havniae, 1846. From 1859 till 1865 the French consul in Ceylon, P. Grimblot, collected a large number of Pāli manuscripts which have been described by J. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire.38 Grimblot planned the publication of many texts in a Bibliotheca Palica but death prevented him from carrying out his plans. Léon Feer published his Extraits du Paritta in 1871 (JA, 1871, II, pp. 225-335). The first scholar to make good use of the manuscripts collected by Grimblot was I. P. Minaev (1840-1890) who published in 1869 the text of the Patimokkha with a translation and many extracts from Buddhaghosa's Samantapāsadikā, the Kankha-vitaraņi, etc.39 In 1872 Minaev published a Pāli grammar which was translated into French and English.40 Spiegel was the first to publish Pāli texts from the Copenhagen collection in his Anecdota Pâlica (Leipzig, 1845) which contains the first four stories of the first vagga of the Rasavāhini and the Uragasutta from the Suttanipāta. In 1855 Viggo Fausbøll (1821-1908) published the Dhammapada with a Latin translation and extracts from the Dhammapadaṭṭhakathā. Albrecht Weber (18251901) translated the Dhammapada in German (ZDMG, 14, 1860, pp. 29–86; Indische Streifen, I, 1868, pp. 112-185). Both Fausbøll and Weber also published some Jātakas from the Jātaka collection.41 Of other texts published before 1877
38 Du bouddhisme et de sa littérature à Ceylan. Collection de M. Grimblot, consul de France à Ceylan, Journal des Savants, 1866, pp. 43-59, 100-116, 151–166.
39
Pratimoksa-sutra. Buddijskij služebnik, Spb., 1869. lii+122pp.
40
Očerk fonetiki i morfologii jazyka pali. Spb., 1872; Grammaire Pālie, Paris, 1974; Pāli Grammar, British Burmah, 1883. On Minaev see Alexandra Schneider, Professor J. P. Minayeff, IHQ X, 1934, pp. 811-826; Ivan Pavlovič Minaev. Sbornik statej, Moskva, 1967.
41 A. Weber, Über das Makasajâtakam, Ind. St., 4, 1858, pp. 387-392; V. Fausbøll und A. Weber, Die Pāli-Legende von der Entstehung des Sâkya (Çâkya)-und Koliya-Geschlechtes, Ind. St., 5, 1862, pp. 412-437; Fausbøll, Five Játakas, Copenhagen, 1861; The Dasa-*
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