The Piṃgalâtreya sûtra of the (Mûla)sarvâstivâdins: its edition and study : investigation of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra’s status within the Dîrghâgama Collection of Long (Discourses of the Buddha)

Abstract

The focus of this study is on the manuscript of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra of the (Mûla)sarvâstivâda tradition, being a part of the Úîlaskandha (Moral conduct) section within the Dîrghâgama (Collection of Long [Discourses of the Buddha]). A bundle of birch bark manuscripts written in Sanskrit was found in the area of Greater Gandhâra, today’s Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1998. The study is done by, firstly, getting acquainted with the lexical scope and syntactic structures of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra by transliterating, reconstructing and translating it, as well as collecting relevant material from other works within the Buddhist literature and collating parts of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra with it. This first stage of the study has been carried out by following the established praxis of editing the Buddhist manuscripts in the

The focus of this study is on the manuscript of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra of the (Mûla)sarvâstivâda tradition, being a part of the Úîlaskandha (Moral conduct) section within the Dîrghâgama (Collection of Long [Discourses of the Buddha]). A bundle of birch bark manuscripts written in Sanskrit was found in the area of Greater Gandhâra, today’s Afghanistan and Pakistan in 1998. The study is done by, firstly, getting acquainted with the lexical scope and syntactic structures of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra by transliterating, reconstructing and translating it, as well as collecting relevant material from other works within the Buddhist literature and collating parts of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra with it. This first stage of the study has been carried out by following the established praxis of editing the Buddhist manuscripts in the Manuscripts in the Sch¸yen Collection and already completed works on the manuscripts from the Dîrghâgama collection that, as a rule, correspond to the general method of textual editing. Secondly, a detailed and comparative examination of the Piṃgalâtreya sûtra’s contents and structure in connection to the related material from the Buddhist literature and scholarly publications is accomplished according to the principles of textual criticism that again is a part of the approach for textual editing. The results of this study, though limited in their scope, present a previously unknown sûtra in a way that it will be at hand for future scholarly research on the Dîrghâgama manuscript, as well as contribute to the recent scholarly debate on the origin and development of the (Mûla)sarvâstivâda tradition and their religious literature.