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
legend but for the use of archaeological materials he had studied for many decennia.
In recent years the study of the Pāli canon has continued. In 1960 the first fascicle of the second volume of the Critical Pāli Dictionary was published. The cooperation of scholars from several countries promises to assure a steady progress in the publication of this monumental dictionary. The seventh fascicle, published in 1971, brings the dictionary up to the word ugghāțima and we may expect the completion of volume two, containing the vowels a--o, in the near future. In 1952 the Pali Text Society published the first fascicle of a Pāli Tipitakam Concordance which, on completion, will render great services to Pāli and Buddhist studies. In the field of Pāli grammar special attention has been paid to syntax by Hans Hendriksen (1913– ), who wrote a Syntax of the infinitive verb-forms of Pāli (Copenhagen, 1944), and by Oskar von Hinüber (1939- ), who analysed the syntax of the cases in the Vinayapitaka.37 A grammar of Pāli according to structural principles was published in Russian by T. Ja. Elizarenkova and V. N. Toporov (Jazyk Pali, Moskva, 1965). The Pali Text Society continues to publish editions of texts and translations. Among the latter one must mention Miss I. B. Horner's translations of the entire Vinayapitaka and the Majjhima-nikāya which are distinguished by their precise terminology and judicious use of the commentaries.38 K. R. Norman made new translations of the Thera- and Therigāthā which, through a penetrating analysis of metrical, grammatical and philological problems, mark a great advance on Mrs. Rhys-Davids's translation.39 The necessity to revise older editions of Pāli texts by taking into account Oriental editions of Pāli texts and analysing metrical problems has been clearly brought out in several studies published by Alsdorf and W. B. Bollée.40
37 Studien zur Kasussyntax des Pāli, besonders des Vinaya-pitaka, München, 1968 (reviewed by J. W. de Jong, I1J, XV, 1973, pp. 64-66).
38 The Book of Discipline, London, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1951, 1952, 1966; The Middle Length Sayings, London, 1954, 1957, 1959.
39 The Elders' Verses I, London, 1969 (reviewed by J.W. de Jong, IIF, XIII, 1972, pp. 297-301); The Elders' Verses II, London, 1971.
40 L. Alsdorf, Bemerkungen zum Vessantara-Jātaka, WZKSO, I, 1957, pp. 1-70; Die Ärya-Strophen des Pāli-Kanons, Wiesbaden, 1968; Das Jātaka vom weisen Vidura, WZKS, XV, 1971, pp. 23-56; W.B. Bollée, Kunālajātaka, London, 1970.
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