buddhism in gandhra 65
published the extant portions of this manuscript along with a detailed
study of the Gndhr language and the differences between the various
extant Dharmapada versions, i.e., the Pli Dhammapada of the Theravdins
and the Sanskrit Udnavarga (The Group of Inspired Utterances) of
the Sarvstivdins. The peculiarities of its language let G. Fussman
to date the manuscript to the late rst century BC.^94 It is supposed to
originate from Khotan^95 and not coming from Gandhra. It is generally
attributed to the Dharmaguptaka school.^96
It is only very recently that six additional collections of Gndhr
manuscripts have been discovered.^97 These have been described by
R. Salomon^98 as follows:
1.) The British Library Kharo h scrolls kept in the British Library
at London. These manuscripts consist of 29 fragmentary rolls of birch
bark. A detailed description of the contents of this collection is found
in Salomon (1999). The texts belong to different literary genres and
are written by different scribes. There are fragments of stra, avadna
(“previous birth stories”), abhidharma, commentaries and verse texts.
The fragments of the Gndhr Rhinoceros Stra were published by
R. Salomon 2000, those of the Ekottarikgamastras by M. Allon 2001,
those of a new version of the Gndhr Dharmapada and a collection
of “Previous Birth Stories” by T. Lenz (2003). The abhidharma frag-
ment concerning the topic of the three time periods was discussed by
C. Cox^99 at the XIIIth IABS (International Association of Buddhist
Studies) Conference. The fragments originate from Haa, Afghanistan
and may be attributed to the Dharmaguptaka school. Their likely date
of composition is the early rst century AD.
2.) The Senior collection is a private collection in the United
Kingdom. It consists of 24 fragments written by the same hand. Most
of them are stra texts belonging to the Sayuktgama (Collection of
Kindred [Discourses]), the Drghgama, the Madhyamgama (Collection of
Middle Length [Discourses]) and one fragment from the Anavataptagth.
(^94) Fussman 1989, pp. 464f., 498; Brough 1962, p. 56, dated it tentatively to the
early second century AD.
(^95) Sander 1993, p. 69; Chung & Wille 1997, p. 47.
(^96) von Hinüber 1985, p. 74.
(^97) In addition, a few more Kharo h fragments have been added since. A current
list is available on the Early Buddhist Manuscript website: http://depts.washington.
edu/ebmp/manuscripts_frag.php. 98
Salomon 1997; 1998b; 1999; 2002b.
(^99) Cox 2002.