Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

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

Page 50

THE EASTERN BUDDHIST
great care by Johannes Nobel (1887–1960) in 1937 (for critical remarks see Edgerton, JAOS, 77, pp. 185-187).
We mentioned the work done by Fausbøll and the Pali Text Society for Pāli studies. Denmark has continued to be an important centre for Pāli studies. The most important undertaking in the field is the Critical Pāli Dictionary by Dines Andersen (1861-1940)103 and Helmer Smith (1882-1956),104 who made use of the lexicographical materials collected by Trenckner. The first volume of the dictionary, comprising the letter a, was published from 1924 to 1948. In this connection one must mention the lexicographical materials collected by Wilhelm Geiger (1856–1943), which remained unpublished as were the materials collected before him by Burnouf and Spiegel. However, Geiger's materials have been put at the disposal of the editors of the CPD and have been included in fasc. 2 and following of volume 2. Geiger's name will also always be connected with the two Pāli chronicles Dīpavamsa and Mahāvamsa to which he devoted many years of careful study. To Geiger is also due the best Pāli grammar (Pāli, Literatur und Sprache), which appeared in 1916. Finally, one must mention his very fine translation of the first two volumes of the Samyuttanikāya (München-Neubiberg, 1930-1925). Together with Magdalene Geiger he wrote a detailed study of the meaning of the word dhamma in Pāli literature (Pāli Dhamma vornehmlich in der kanonischen Literatur, München, 1921; W. Geiger, Dhamma und Brahman, Z. f. Buddhismus, III, 1921, pp. 73-83).105
Tibetan studies relating to Buddhism can only be mentioned briefly. W.W. Rockhill (1854-1914) made important material accessible to the scholarly world by his translations from the Tibetan of the Udānavarga (London, 1883), The Life of the Buddha, based on the Tibetan translation of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya (London, 1884) and the Bhiksuni-prātimokșa-sūtra from the same Vinaya (Paris, 1886).106 Georg Huth (1867–1906) edited and translated the Hor-chos
103 On Andersen see CPD pp. xxxv-xxxviii. 104 On Helmer Smith see CPD, II, 1, 1960, pp. v-viji.
105 Cf. Bechert's article on Geiger, CPD, II, 2, 1962, pp. ix-xiv; for a complete bibliography of Geiger's writings see Wilhelm Geiger, Kleine Schriften, Wiesbaden, 1973, pp. xi-xxxiii.
106 Cf. A. Cordier, Nécrologie William Woodville Rockhill, T'oung Pao, 16, 1915, pp. 160-164; B. Laufer, Nécrologie William Woodville Rockhill, ibid., pp. 289–290.
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