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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.orgAcharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
mmmonly known as 'the Klarosthi Recension of the Dhammajadu,' which is a misnomer. The title chosen by the French scholar implies a meaning quite different from that which is conveyed by Kharosthí recension,' a name which suggests at once to the inind the idea of a copy of the Dhammapada in the Kharoşthi language,' while, ils il matter of fact, Kharoşthi is only the name of a pript in which the text has been preserved. Ther also speak of a 'Turfan Recension' since the publication of a specimen of the Sanskrit Udūnararga, of which a manuscript in fragments has been found in Turfan. ds Prof. Pischel, who was the first to bring this specimen to light, explains, the title “ Die Turfan-Recensionen " refers onls to a manuscript, found in Torfan, of a Sanskrit recension of the Pali Dhammapala.' Thrfan Recension' must be regarded as a misnomer until it is definitely proved that there was a redaction male of the UdAnavarga in Turfan. When, for instance, we speak of the Bengal, Benares acd Bombay recensions of the Rämävala We woderstand no more than so many editions of a single epic in Sanskrit, varying with one another according as they arr based upon different readings in the different provinces, that is to say, upon texts as altered or modified by the scribes and repeaters of the thr. e localities. The same holds true of the recensions of the Mahābhārata and other texts. But the case of the Dhammapada recensions' is somewhat different ; for, in speaking of the Dhammapada recensions we cannot mean so many l'edactions of the same text in the same language, but so many different texts with different titles, composed in different langnager, but helonging to a common literary type. To name one Dhanımapada recension, in this special sense, after the script (e.9., Kharosthi recension) and another after the place of fiml (4., Turfinu recension) cannot. Innt be nuslening wnscientilic. This way of naming the Dhammapada tests woull go to m ecessarily audi to the number of recensions in the case of every new find in a new script or in a new place. The best way to have a consistent
Die 'Turfa». Recensionen der Dhinamun paila, para. I
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