Brief History Of Buddhist Studies In Europe And Maerica

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

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THE EASTERN BUDDHIST
been found in Gilgit.20 Waldschmidt's editions are exemplary. His careful editions of the fragments leave no doubt about the manuscript readings, which, moreover, can be checked with the help of photomechanic reproductions of the manuscripts.21
By analysing parallel texts and publishing the Sanskrit fragments together with parallel passages, Waldschmidt has made available all the relevant material. It is a pity that, as has been observed by Nobel,22 Dutt's edition of the Gilgit manuscripts is very unsatisfactory. Waldschmidt's editions have been criticised in one respect only. According to Edgerton Waldschmidt has Sanskritized many readings.23 There is no doubt that the texts edited by Waldschmidt contain BHS elements. However, it is by no means sure that this has to be explained by the fact that these texts were originally composed in BHS. From a historical point of view one would expect texts such as the Mahāparinirvāņasūtra to belong to the older stratum of the Buddhist canon. However, it is possible that the Sarvāstivādin began writing down their canonical texts at a much later period when the use of Sanskrit had already greatly replaced the use of Prakrit and BHS. Some Sarvāstivāda texts were originally written in BHS. This is shown by the existence of an old manuscript of the Udānavarga, found near Kucha by Pelliot, which was partly edited by Chakravarti.24 It seems possible that a small number of texts of the Sarvāstivāda school were written in BHS but that later texts were written in Buddhist Sanskrit with an admixture of BHS elements. An edition of the Udānavarga which Lüders had prepared was destroyed in the war. Franz Bernhard (19311971) whose untimely death is a great loss for Buddhist studies, has edited the text of the Udānavarga with the help of a great number of manuscripts and
20 Gilgit Manuscripts, vol. III, part 1, Srinagar, 1947; part 2, 1942; part 3, 1943; part 4, Calcutta, 1950. All edited by Nalinaksha Dutt.
21 Faksimile-Wiedergaben von Sanskrit-Handschriften aus den Berliner Turfanfunden. I, The Hague, 1963; Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden. I, Wiesbaden, 1965; II, 1968; III, 1971.
22 Udrāyana, König von Roruka. II, Wiesbaden, 1955, p. v, note 1.
23 Cf. note 4; see also Brough, The Language of the Buddhist Sanskrit Texts, BSO AS, 16, 1954, pp. 364-365.
24 N.P. Chakravarti, L'Udānavarga sanskrit. Tome premier. Paris, 1930.
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