Collected Papers, vol. 2.

• Author: Cox, Collett

This volume is the second in an anticipated three-volume set, which will reprint in chronological order the articles of K. R. Norman. In this volume are collected articles from the years 1977 to 1983, numbered as 31 through 52. The articles have been reset and not simply photographically reproduced and the author has added references to later articles on the same subjects. Therefore, this collection performs a double service, not only of assembling the original essays in a more accessible and convenient form, but also of enhancing their utility by correcting typographical errors and by providing a uniform format for footnotes and abbreviations, an abbreviation list, an index verborum of Old and Middle Indo-Aryan, and brief postscripts indicating related articles in the collection. Also included in the reprinted articles are references to the original place and date of publication and notation of the original pagination in angled brackets. The articles here span the main, interrelated areas of the author's work--Pali, Middle Indo-Aryan studies, and Asokan inscriptions--and include many articles of immeasurable value also to those in Buddhist and Jaina studies. While an outward connection between the articles is provided by the common linguistic material, an inner organic connection can also be felt in the common masterful method, demonstrated even in those articles with a more general scope. In this method, conclusions are suggested only after exemplary philological work: stimulated by a particular problem and guided by an impressive and surefooted textual erudition, Norman sifts for answers from an accumulation of closely and carefully considered readings.

For those less familiar with Norman's work or wishing to check their bibliographies, a topical list of the articles in this volume may be useful. Here, four articles treat Asokan inscriptions: (33) "Middle Indo-Aryan Studies XII (The recensions of the Asokan Rock Edicts)," (35) "Notes on the so-called 'Queen's Edict' of Asoka," (50) Asokan sila-thambha-s and dhamma-thambha-s," and (52) "Notes on the Ahraura version of Asoka's First Minor Rock Edict." Four articles have a narrower focus on grammatical or word studies: (36) "Magadhisms in the Kathavatthu"; (37) "Two Pali Etymologies," (41) "Middle Indo-Aryan Studies XV (Nine Pali etymologies)," (43) "Four etymologies from the Sabhiya-sutta." Though many of the preceding articles examine linguistic matters of concern to Buddhism, Buddhist...