Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project

FAIN: RQ-50567-11

University of Washington (Seattle, WA 98195-1016)
Richard G. Salomon (Project Director: November 2010 to December 2014)

Preparation for publication of transcriptions, translations, and extensive annotations of Gandhari texts documenting the early history of Buddhism. (36 months)

The University of Washington Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project was constituted in 1996 to publish a collection of Buddhist manuscripts on birch-bark scrolls dating from the first century A.D. They are the oldest extant Buddhist texts and are having a profound effect on the study of Buddhism both in its Indian homeland and in other parts of Asia. At present, seven collections or individual manuscripts of a similar type are being studied by project members, and the results are being published in the project's Gandharan Buddhist Texts series. Six volumes of manuscript studies have been published thus far, with several more in progress. The project also plans to expand its publications with a new series entitled Gandharan Studies, which will include works exploring aspects of Gandharan culture, language, art, archeology, and history that will be of interest to a wider audience.