Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden, vol. 8: Die Katalognummern 1800-1999.

• Author: Salomon, Richard
• Position: Book Review

Edited by KLAUS WILLE. Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, vol. X,8. Stuttgart: FRANZ STERNER VERLAG, 2000. Pp. x + 289.

This book, the eighth of a projected ten volumes of the Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden (SHT), (1) under the general editorship of Heinz Bechert, continues the publication of fragments of Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts collected in the Turfan oasis region and in sites on the northern rim of the Tarim Basin by four German expeditions to Central Asia between 1902 and 1914. This latest volume comprises a "Restbestand von kleineren Fragmenten" of various types and genres, for most of which, unfortunately, the exact findspots are not known (p. viii). Of the two hundred fragments published here, sixty-two have been positively identified and sixty more provisionally identified, at least in terms of their genre. The great majority of the fragments are written in North Turkestan Brahmi type b, which suggests a date not earlier than the seventh century (Sander 1968: 186).

The miscellaneous character of the fragments presented in this volume does not in any way diminish their value; on the contrary, there is a great deal of interesting and important material herein. Among the texts and genres prominently represented in this collection are abhidharma treatises, including numerous fragments of Sanghabhadra's *Nyayanusara and the first known Sanskrit fragment of Devasarman's Vijnanakaya. Other texts of particular interest include two fragments of the Vajracchedika containing some significantly different readings from those of previously known versions of the text; a fragment of Ravigupta's medical text, Siddhasara; and a fragment of the Udanavarga which provides readings for some portions of the text which were not previously attested in other Sanskrit manuscripts.

Also well represented in this collection are sutra fragments, with portions of several texts from each of the Dirgha-, Madhyama-, and Samyukta-agamas. The importance of this Turfan sutra material has become all the greater in light of discoveries within the last few years of the first known sutra texts in Gandhari (Salomon 1999: 24-26; Anon 2001), including, most recently, a substantial body of Samyuktagama texts (Salomon 2003: 79) and a new manuscript of the Sanskrit Dirghagama, apparently from the Gilgit area (Hartmann 2000). These new discoveries, combined with the continued publication of agama texts from the older Turfan collection...