buddhism in gandhra 67
are mostly unidenti ed and originate from Bamiyan in Afghanistan,
or nearby. They date probably to the second to third centuries AD.^106
The fragments of the Mahparinirv astra were published by M. Allon
and R. Salomon in 2000. These fragments belong to a distinct ver-
sion of the Mahparinirv astra which differs from all other extant
versions; on the other hand, this Gndhr version has some notable
similarities to the Chinese Drghgama version which is attributed to
the Dharmaguptaka school. The authors draw the conclusion that the
Gndhr Mahparinirv astra version also belonged to that school.^107
6.) The Hirayama Kharo h fragments are stored at the Institute
of Silk Road Studies in Kamakura ( Japan). This collection comprises
27 fragments of palm leaf folios which belong to the same group of
manuscripts as the Schøyen Kharo h fragments. One of these frag-
ments belongs to the Mahparinirv astra. It was published by M. Allon
and R. Salomon (2000, p. 246).
Until a few years ago all of the identi ed Gndhr fragments in
Kharo h script were parts of texts connected with the Hnayna.
Recently, however, fragments of one text, now split between both the
Schøyen and Hirayama Collections, have been identi ed as forming part
of the Bhadrakalpikastra. This stra came to be classi ed as a Mahyna
stra, but it is not certain if such an identi cation is appropriate for the
text in view of the time when the original manuscripts were written.^108
It is remarkable that no fragments of vinaya texts were found in these
collections. Another noteworthy feature is that the abhidharma texts in
the Kharo h collections as well as those in the Schøyen collection can
not be attributed to abhidharma works of the Sarvstivdins known to
us in original Sanskrit or in Chinese translations. This agrees with the
observation made by L. Sander^109 with regard to the abhidharma frag-
ments from the Kua and early Gupta periods that were found in
Qizil. She sees as one of the dif culties the age of the fragments which
are older than the Sanskrit fragments known to us.
Another sizeable collection of Buddhist manuscripts appeared a
few years ago. They were acquired by the Norwegian M. Schøyen
(^106) Three Kharo h fragments from the Schøyen Collection recently underwent
radiocarbon testing by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
The results support paleographic dating of these documents to the second and third
centuries AD.
(^107) Allon & Salomon 2000, p. 273.
(^108) Glass 2004, p. 141.
(^109) Sander 1991, pp. 133–134.