British Library/University of Washington Early Buddhist Manuscript Project

FAIN: RZ-50327-05

University of Washington (Seattle, WA 98195-1016)
Richard G. Salomon (Project Director: October 2004 to June 2009)

The renewal of funding for the ongoing British Library/University of Washington Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project to study and publish the earliest surviving corpus of Buddhist manuscripts in any language. (36 months)

The British Library/University of Washington Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project was constituted in 1996 in order to study, edit, and publish a unique collection of twenty-nine fragments of Buddhist manuscripts on birch bark scrolls, dating from the first century A.D. These manuscripts, written in the Gandhari language, are both the oldest extant Buddhist manuscripts and the oldest surviving manuscripts in any Indian language. They are destined to have a profound effect on the study of the history of Buddhism in India and the rest of Asia. Since the foundation of the project in 1996 a great deal of additional manuscript material of similar type and importance has come to light, and this material is also being studied by the project. To date, three volumes of studies have been published by the University of Washington Press, and several more are near completion or in progress. The current proposal seeks continued funding for the researchers engaged in studying and publishing this material.

Associated Products

Two Ga¯ndha¯ri¯ Manuscripts of the Songs of Lake Anavatapta (Anavatapta-ga¯tha¯): British Library Kharos?t?hi¯ Fragment 1 and Senior Scroll 14 (Book)
Title: Two Ga¯ndha¯ri¯ Manuscripts of the Songs of Lake Anavatapta (Anavatapta-ga¯tha¯): British Library Kharos?t?hi¯ Fragment 1 and Senior Scroll 14
Author: Andrew Glass
Author: Richard Salomon
Abstract: This fifth volume in the Gandharan Buddhist Texts series (GBT) presents two fragmentary manuscripts of the poem "Songs of Lake Anavatapta." Previously known from versions in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, and Chinese, the two recently discovered Gandhari-language versions confirm the poem's popularity in the ancient Buddhist world. The "Songs of Lake Anavatapta" consists of a series of narrations by the Buddha's foremost disciples (and finally by the Buddha himself) in which each reveals his own complex karmic history over many past lives and explains how, as a result of good deeds, he has come to be an enlightened disciple of the Buddha. An important theme is the complexity of karma, whereby not only the enlightened beings but even the Buddha himself suffer the effects of remnants of bad karma from evil deeds long-ago.
Year: 2008
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/two-gandhari-manuscripts-of-the-songs-of-lake-anavatapta-anavatapta-gatha-british-library-kharosthi-fragment-1-and-senior-scroll-14/oclc/844327762&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/SALTWO.html
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780295989051
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Gandharan Avadanas: British Library Kharosthi Fragments 1-3 and 21 and Supplementary Fragments A-C (Book)
Title: Gandharan Avadanas: British Library Kharosthi Fragments 1-3 and 21 and Supplementary Fragments A-C
Author: Timothy Lenz
Abstract: The Gandharan Buddhist Texts series presents editions, translations, and studies of the British Library’s unique collection of Buddhist manuscripts in the Gandhari language, dating from the first century AD. Gandharan Avadanas features editions and studies of five fragmentary scrolls containing collections of avadanas, or edifying stories. The manuscript fragments presented here comprise twenty-one avadanas that briefly summarize stories, typically furnishing no more than a title, identification of the main character, and minimal reference to the plot. Presumably, these summaries would have served as memory prompts for the intended reader, perhaps the scribe himself, who would already have been familiar with the avadanas. The newly discovered Gandharan avadanas differ from those popular in other Buddhist literatures in their lack of explicit reference to underlying karmic causes and also in addressing a broader array of themes such as the inevitable disappearance of the dharma, the pitfalls of samsaric existence, and the history of the first Buddhist council after the Buddha’s nirvana.
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/gandharan-avadanas-british-library-kharosthi-fragments-1-3-and-21-and-supplementary-fragments-a-c/oclc/463454556&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/LENGAN.html
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780295990132
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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