Sanskrit Manuscript Of Dharmakirtis Pramanaviniscaya

Author(s): Kazunobu Matsuda, Ernat Steinkellner
Publisher: Kazunobu Matsuda, Ernat Steinkellner

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THE SANSKRIT MANUSCRIPT OF DHARMAKĪRTI'S PRAMĀŅAVINISCAYA
(Report on a Single Folio Fragment from the National Archives Collection, Kathmandu)
By Kazunobu Matsuda, Kyoto and Ernst Steinkellner, Vienna
1. INTRODUCTION The identification of the Buddhist Sanskrit manuscript fragments preserved in the National Archives of Nepal, Kathmandu, has been the ongoing work of K. Matsuda, one of the collaborators in this study. The main portion of these fragments was first examined by Cecil Bendall about a century ago?. After Bendall's death, the photographs of these fragments passed into the hands of Louis de La Vallée Poussin who published studies on several of the fragments?. A few studies by
Kazunobu Matsuda would like to acknowledge his debt of gratitude to Professor Balram D. Dangol of the National Archives for his unstinting cooperation in providing the microfilms needed and arranging for permission to publish the study and the related folios.
2 C. BENDALL spent a four month period from November 1898 to March 1899 in India and Nepal, during which time he visited the Durbar Library (present National Archives) where he discovered the cache of old manuscript fragments which he borrowed and photographed. For his reports, see: Remarks on the Results of Bendall's Recent Journey to Nepal in Search of Sanskrit Mss. and Inscriptions. Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 2 (Feb. 1899) 30–35; Pāli MSS. in Nepal. JRAS 1899, 422; Outline-Report on a Tour in Northern India in the Winter 1898-9. JRAS 1900, 162-164; Nepal MSS. JRAS 1900, 345-347; Śikṣāsamuccaya ([Bibliotheca Buddhica I] Petersburg 1897– 1902), p. 291, n. 7 and frontispiece; Fragment of a Buddhist Ordination-Ritual in Sanskrit. Album Kern (Leiden 1903), p. 373–376; Subhāşita-Samgraha. Le Muséon 1903, 375-402 and 1904,5-46 and 245–274, esp. p. 375–377; Note on the History of the Pāli Canon in Northern India. Verhandlungen des XIII. Internationalen Orientalisten-Kongresses, Hamburg Sept. 1902 (Leiden 1904) 58-60. - Some of the fragments examined by Bendall are entered in H.P. SĀSTRI'S A Catalogue of Palm-Leaf & Selected Paper Mss. Belonging to the Durbar Library, Nepal, Vol: II (Calcutta 1915), p. 246-248 (rep. Stuttgart 1989 as VOHD Supplementband 31, with microfilm concordance by R. GRÜNENDAHL), where they are among the particular group of manuscripts in the Library's collection referred to as 'Bendall's Puka'.
3 See DE LA VALLÉE POUSSIN'S Mss. Cecil Bendall. JRAS 1907, 375–379; Mss. Cecil Bendall II. Fragments en écriture Gupta du Nord. JRAS 1908, 45-53
WZKS 35 (1991) 139-149