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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.orgAcharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
The Kharosthi Manuscript of the
Dhammapada With improved readings and readjustments
[1. Magavaga]
The heading here, as in other chapters, is our own, and is not to be found in the Kharoşthi manuscript. But the title chosen suggests itself from the burden of the verses themselves. The chapter, as may be judged from its colophon" ga 30" (I. A", 6). consists of 30 stanzas, of which 17 (i.e., 10-26) are missing from the manuscript in hand. With the exception of the first three which are to be traced in the Sarayutta-nikāva, all the stanzas are to be found in the Pali Dhammapada, distributed in two chapters, viz., the Magga and the Pakinnaka, verses 4-9. being in the Pukinnakavagga and 27-30 in the Magga. The total number of verses may itself be regarded as a proof of the combination of two groups of verses of the Pāli recension under one chapter of the Prakrit. The Maggavagga which just precedes the Pakinnakavagga in the Pāli recension, contuins 17 stanzas and the Pakinnaka 16. Rockbill's translation of the Tibetan version of the Udānavarga shows that the verses under notice are distributed in the latest known Sanskrit recension in two chapters, the Märga, and the Smriti, of which the former contains 20 stanzas, and the latter 28. The Chinese recension, Fa-khen-king, has two chaptera, which are named and juxtaposed in the same way as in Påli. But, as a matter of fact, the similarity between the two recensions is only in name, the stanzas being entirely different though the chapters bear the same title.
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