Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

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

Page 55

BUDDHIST STUDIES IN THE WEST
texts. For the editing of BHS verse Edgerton's views on the metre and phonology of the gāthās are of fundamental importance. They were first attacked by Helmer Smith in Les deux prosodies du vers bouddhique (Lund, 1950), in which he severely criticised Edgerton's article in JAOS, 66 (pp. 197-206). After the publication of Edgerton's Grammar and Dictionary, Smith discussed Edgerton's views in his Analecta rhytmica (Helsinki, 1954) and in his “En marge du vocabulaire sanskrit des bouddhistes” (Orientalia suecana, 2, 1953, pp. 119–128; 3, 1954, pp. 31–35; 4, 1955, pp. 109–113). Edgerton's metrical theories were also discussed briefly by Waldschmidt (Das Mahāvadānasūtra, II, Berlin, 1960, pp. 59-62), by Heinz Bechert(Bruchstücke buddhistischer Versammlungen, I, Berlin, 1961, p. 26; Über die "Marburger Fragmente des Saddharmapundarīka, Göttingen, 1972, p. 70), and by Franz Bernhard (Udānavarga, Göttingen, 1965, pp. 1620). Finally, in this connection, mention must be made of Lamotte's pages on BHS in which he draws attention to the history of epigraphic mixed Sanskrit (Histoire du bouddhisme indien, I, Louvain, 1958, pp. 634-645).
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit was first known as Gāthā dialect because it was characteristic for the language of the verses of Mahāyāna sūtras. Wackernagel (Altindische Grammatik, I, Göttingen, 1896) enumerates the publications which appeared up to 1896 (pp. xxxix-xl). Bibliographical information on the publications which appeared since 1896 is given in Renou's translation of Wackernagel's text (Altindische Grammatik, Introduction générale, Göttingen, 1957, pp. 81-85). Senart's edition of the Mahāvastu made it clear that the Gāthā dialect was not limited to verses. Moreover, it was found to have been used in inscriptions and in non-religious works such as the Bakshāli manuscript, a mathematical text (edited by G. R. Kaye: The Bakshāli Manuscript, Calcutta, 1927) and in the Bower manuscript, a medical text discovered in 1890 near Kucha (edited by A. F. R. Hoernle, The Bower Manuscript, Calcutta, 1893– 1912). In 1886 Senart proposed therefore the name “mixed Sanskrit” (Les
*129-134; The nature of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, J. Ganganatha Jha Research Institute, 11/12.2, 1955, pp. 1-10; On editing Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, JAOS, 77, 1957, pp. 184192; The Prajñā-pāramitā-ratna-guna-samcaya-gāthā, IIJ, 5, 1961, pp. 1-18.
5 For a complete bibliography of Edgerton's publications see Language, 40, 1964, pp. 116–123.
For Smith's other publications on Pāli and Middle Indic metrics see Critical Pāli Dictionary, vol. II, fasc. I, Copenhagen, 1960, p. viii.
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