Found Manuscripts, Disappearing Texts: Gāndhārī Dharmapadas and Arthapadas

Abstract

Manuscript discoveries can lead to the rediscovery of texts previously only quoted or alluded to in other texts, and several such cases are discussed in this panel. In Buddhist literature, this scenario appears to hold for the Sanskrit tradition, and particularly the works of historical authors. In the earlier tradition using the Gāndhārī language, however, and particularly for canonical works, an inverse pattern can be observed: new manuscript discoveries, even from the same region, often contain new and unexpected variants of the same text, undermining the very notion of an abstract fixed text. Cases in point are Gāndhārī versions of the Dharmapada and the Arthapada. The former was first known from the Khotan manuscript, edited by John Brough as The Gāndhārī Dharmapada. But subsequent discoveries of two more Gāndhārī Dharmapada manuscripts with different versions, and commentaries on select Dharmapada verses, have highlighted the fluidity and variance of Gāndhārī versions (or performances) of this text. The Gāndhārī Arthapada, first known from the same selective commentary, is now also available in a partially preserved manuscript. Both witnesses diverge significantly from the Pali version and Chinese translation, showing that already in the first century this text, sometimes held up as the oldest teaching of the Buddha himself, existed in multiple variants with clear signs of improvisation, none of which can be considered a faithful representative of a first composition.