Gandhari Prakrit Version of Rhinoceros Sutra

Author(s): J C Wright
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 12

(p. 46) even to admit graphic corruption as a factor.
The Sanskrit text converts the ‘non-violence title-verse into a complete framework, with Ga. I merged with 36ab (Pa. 39ab) and inflated into two verses, Skt. 2-3; and with Pa. lcd (via Ga. 14cd *ñătim and 23cd *putram?) merged with Ga. 3ab and equally facilely reduplicated as its concluding verses, Skt. 11-12.8 The former pair are emboxed within verses which seem to emphasize the power of the animal (thāmabalūpapanno, ohārayitvā, sandālayitvā) as a metaphor for the power of asceticism. The prominence given to this complex notion, the antithesis of peaceful isolation, could be a symptom of its relative lateness. The material is more miscellaneously incorporated in Ga. and Pa. (Skt. 1 corresponding to Pa. 34, Ga. 11; and Skt. 4-5 corresponding to Pa. 30 + 28, Ga. 19-20).
Neither Senart nor Salomon has recognized that in Skt. 5 the words śikhir yatha bhasmani ekacārī (kāṣāyavastro abhiniskramitvā) must have the sense 'like a solitary ascetic (covered) in ash'. 'The loose locative bhasmani would reflect the commentary's misunderstanding of the Pali version's compound salil'ambucāri sea-fish' (Pa. 28b jālam va bhetvā salil'ambucāri) as containing a locative. For salila as 'salt water', cf. Thieme's discussion in his Kl. Schr., 1, 178f. The 8. Ga. 36ab + Icd and Ga. lab (banally duplicated) yield Skt. 2(* maitram .., maitrena ...) and 3 (sarvesu ...) respectively, in effect conflating Ga. 36, Pa. 39 (mettam ..., sabbena) with Ga. 1 (*sarveșu ..., metrena...). Cf. Salomon, p.39f. 9. Senart (Le Mahāvastu, 1882, 1, 630) thought of sikhin 'fire', Salomon (p. 149f.) of 'peacock', etc.; but neither is able to relate this to the rest of the Sanskrit pāda. The basic adjective sikhin 'wearing a topknot' is elsewhere correlated with munda, jatila, etc., and it can denote a Brahmir sage (in Brahmopanişad ) or one of the Tathāgatas. Pj II 115 has nadisalile ambucāri. This fits the syntax almost as badly as the mechanical salila udakam + ambucāri maccho of Niddesa (N JI E° 274+95), which makes no sense grammatically (and so may as well reflect an original correct gloss *salila-maccho as anything else).