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RECENT BUDDHIST STUDIES
this reason we must welcome very much the facsimile editions published in recent years. Of particular importance for the history of Buddhist literature are the manuscripts from Central Asia and Gilgit. Most of the manuscripts from Central Asia contain only fragments. German scholars have published a great number of facsimiles of these manuscripts, either together with text editions or separately since the first publications by Pischel in 1904.29 An almost complete manuscript of the Saddharmapundarika was recently published in facsimile by Lokesh Chandra and in romanisation by H. Toda.30 This so-called “Kashgar" manuscript is described by Heinz Bechert in his foreword to the facsimile edition. Heinz Bechert edited also nine folios of this manuscript in 1972.31 Readings of this manuscript were made known for the first time in 1912 by Hendrik Kern in the edition of the Saddharmapuņdarīka published in the Bibliotheca Buddhica, but we have had to wait till 1976 for the publication of a facsimile edition of this very important manuscript. The Saddharmapundarīka is undoubtedly one of the most interesting texts for the study of the history of Buddhist texts because manuscripts of it have been found in Central Asia, Gilgit and Nepal. Many of the Sanskrit manuscripts discovered in Gilgit—those kept in the National Archives in Delhi-were published in facsimile by Lokesh Chandra in ten volumes from 1959 to 1974.32 Two groups of manuscripts of the Saddharmapundarīka (A and B) were published in facsimile and in romanisation by S. Watanabe in 1972.33 Two folios of group B and manuscripts of group C were published in facsimile by Lokesh Chandra. They were not included in the facsimiles published by Watanabe. H. Toda has published a romanised text of these folios, thereby supplementing Watanabe's edition. 34 In 1982 Oskar von
29 Cf. Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden. Teil I. Wiesbaden, 1965, pp. xxvixxxii; Teil III. Wiesbaden, 1971, pp. 275-276; Teil IV. Wiesbaden, 1980, pp. 353–354.
30 Saddharma-Pundarika-Sūtra. Kashgar Manuscript. Edited by Lokesh Chandra. New Delhi, 1976. Second edition, Tokyo, 1977. Saddharmapundarikasūtra: Central Asian Manuscripts. Romanized Text. Edited by Hirofumi Toda. Tokushima, 1981. First published in seven instal/ments from 1977 to 1979.
31 'Über die "Marburger Fragmente" des Saddharmapundarika', NAWG. I. Phil.-hist. KI., Jahrgang 1972, Nr. 1, 81 pp.
32 Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts (Facsimile Edition), Śata-Pitaka Series Volume 10, 1-10. Delhi 1959-1974.
33 Saddharmapundarika Manuscripts. Two Parts. Tokyo, 1972.
34 'Saddharmapuņdarīkasūtra Gilgit Manuscripts (Groups B and C)', Tokushima Daigaku Kyoyõbu Kiyo (Jimbun Shakai-Kagaku), 14 (1979), pp. 249–304.
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