A New Version of the Gandhari Dharmapada and a Collection of Previous-Birth Stories: British Library Kharosthi Fragments 16 + 25.

• Author: v. Hinuber, O.
• Position: Book review

A New Version of the Gandhari Dharmapada and a Collection of Previous-Birth Stories: British Library Kharosthi Fragments 16 + 25. By TIMOTHY LENZ, with contributions by Andrew Glass and Bhikshu Dharmamitra. Gandharan Buddhist Texts, vol. 3. Seattle: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS, 2003. Pp. xxii + 266, plates, figs.

The texts contained in this volume are edited together, because they are preserved on the same scroll, which was, according to the author's calculation, about 130.5 cm long originally and contained the first two vargas of the Dharmapada together with eleven stories on previous births. The thirteen surviving Dharmapada verses (1) (out of a possible total of ninety on this scroll) and the stories of previous births were copied by two different scribes, who are both known to have copied also other texts in the collection. This fact is mentioned only very indirectly in [section]13, "scribal hands," but is pointed out on p. 38 and p. 203 in one of the appendices.

The book is structured according to principles stated in earlier volumes of this series. (2) A description of the physical state of the fragments precedes the discussion of both texts, which are separated from each other and form the major body of the book. Four appendices comprise a Dharmapada concordance, parallel texts from the British Library Fragments 3 (a parallel to Purvayoga 3, the story of Ajnata Kaundinya), Fragment 1 (the Avadana of Zadamitra, which alludes to the eventual disappearance of the dharma), and lastly parallels to the previous-births stories in Sanskrit or Chinese. At the end, there are two separate indices for the Dharmapada and the Purvayogas. The fragments are excellently illustrated by numerous plates, and the paleographic description is provided with the usual care by A. Glass. The Chinese parallels have been translated by Bhiksu Dharmamitra.

The section of the Dharmapada begins with a very general introduction to this well-known family of texts, which comprises popular verses from different, not necessarily Buddhist sources. (3) It has defied (and will defy) all attempts to reconstruct an ur-text, because any scribe could obviously add to or change the wording of the verses according to his own oral tradition (cf. p. 18). This is, of course, by no means typical only for the Dharmapada family, but for a large part of Buddhist texts in general. (4)

The thirteen (twelve) verses preserved, if very fragmentary, all belong to the Bhiksuvarga. This varga comprises verses 51 to 91 in KDhp, and the surviving verses in LDhp correspond to verses 76 to 91 in KDhp with the parallel to verse 79 (KDhp) missing. These verses are, at the same time, very similar to the Uragavagga of the Theravada Suttanipata. (5) As the last verse preserved corresponds to the end of the Bhiksuvarga, the manuscript should have contained the first two or perhaps only the second varga of the Dharmapada. It seems more likely that the Dharmapada was copied varga by varga, and if so, the length of the original roll would have been only...