BUDDHIST TEXTUAL TRADITION

EXPLORING LESSER KNOWN SCRIPTS AND MANUSCRIPTS
Dr Gautam Chatterjee



Most scholars believe that Pali and Tibetan languages are the only vehicles of Buddhist textual traditions. But that is not true. In Sanskrit, ancient scripts/languages much of the Buddhist thoughts are encoded and most of them are yet to be deciphered. To know the context and to have an insight into the subject the author had interaction with Octogenarian Prof. Satkari Mukhopadhyay, who knows about 18 languages and 13 ancient scripts of the world. This chapter is based on the series of deliberation and discussions held in 1998.

It is commonly believed that all the Buddhist works are available in Pali. That is untrue. Pali language originated as the language of Theravada School, which encompasses scripts of Singhalese, Cambodian, Burmese etc. Ninety nine percent of Pali works have been published. On the other hand in North India Sanskrit remained the initial linguistic vehicle wherein Buddhism traveled very deep at the conceptual level but much is unpublished. Since the Gupta period of 1st century B.C. to the medieval era, Sanskrit not only centred to the development of Buddhist thought but later became Buddhist cultural exposition.

Author asked “Do we have the total textual tradition in Sanskrit intact? Prof. Mukhopadhyay replied, “No. During Muslim invasion many monasteries were destroyed especially of Nalanda, Vikramshila, etc, so we have lost much of them. However, there were monks who escaped and carried some manuscripts, which went to Tibet and remained unnoticed until this century, when Rahul Sansrityayan photographed them. Those texts are in Newari script and i.e. Gaudi. These rare manuscript photographs are available at B.R. Research Society, Bihar, India. Today 28 Buddhist texts are available in print but much is yet to be deciphered. For example in Newari script, the Buddhist Mahayana text “Satasahrika Prajnaparamita”, which runs into 100000 verses.



Further he said, Buddhist textual traditions are found in Sanskrit language and those are in ancient scripts like Gupta Brahmi, Kharashti, Later Gupta Brahmi, Siddhamatrika, Central Asian Brahmi with several variations. Buddhist textual traditions were cultivated in Newari, Gaudi, Pali, Singhalese, Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Tuathan of Laos. It is important to note that except Kharasti script all other scripts in Sanskrit and Pali evolved out of Brahmi script, which we find in Asokan script.

In the context of script which remains a vehicle for religio-cultural expansion of Buddhism in South East Asian, Prof. Mukhopadhyay explained the content from a linguistic point of view as he said that “If culture or philosophy is not retained by people at large there cannot be any growth of any given philosophy or thought”.
Before the advent of Buddhism there were no scripts to record Buddhist thought. Thus scripts were carried. And commentaries were further written to expand the literature of those places. Buddhism actually revolutionized the script of oral tradition into vibrating textual traditions. Uptil 7th century AD. Tibetans had no script of their own. Initially oral tradition continued until Thumi Sambhota came with his team to Northern India to develop a Tibetan script out of Brahmi scripts with the help of Indian pundits. This lead to the further development of Buddhist textual tradition.

Similarly, from the 3rd to 1st century BC Buddhist oral tradition reached and thrived in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist canon Tripitaka was written in Sri Lanka in Brahmi in the 1st century. From the 6th to the 7th century AD the South Indian variety of Brahmi went to Cambodia where it developed into Khmer script from which Burmese, Thai, laos and Indonesian script evolved. These scripts were written in Pali as well as the regional languages thereby spreading Buddhist religion and culture in their regions.

Let us now turn to the context of landmark Buddhist textual traditions. In Kharasti script we have the 2nd century AD manuscript known as Gandhari Dharmapada. The 4th century Kalpanananditika in Brahmi script is another landmark. From the 1st century BC we find Buddhist canonical texts of Northern India in late Brahmi script. Aureal Stein found these immediately valuable manuscripts known as the Gilgit collection. The other important manuscripts are the Turfan, which dates back from 4th to 7th century AD. It is in Gupta Brahmi script and its variations of Central Asian type. It contains Buddhist canonical texts- Jatakas and Asadanas.

Two important works are Asvaghosa, which were found in Nepal in Newari script which contains 2nd century works like Buddhacarita and Saundaran.

Another important manuscript discovered in Tibet is Pramanavatika, a work on Buddhist logic which was written after 7th century but this manuscript was of the 13th/14th century AD.


Author had asked that Prof. Mukhopadhyay being a historian of religion can he compare Buddhism with Hinduism. As we have been told that Lord Buddha was a critic of the Vedas and his religions movement was a rebellion against Vedic religion. Does Prof. Mukhopadhyay subscribe to this theory?

Prof. Replied “In a nutshell Buddhism and Hinduism are not two separate creeds as Islam and Christianity. They drew from a common heritage like different Branches of Banyan tree. So both share paints of agreement and disagreement. In Hinduism we find the importance of God as spiritual and cosmological levels. In Buddhism the God element is missing at both levels and God is replaced with Buddha’s personality, which has touched the heart of all. In later years Buddha himself became an icon. Actually Gautam Buddha revived the older Vedic values and opened the path to moksha (Salvation). Hinduism talks about the four fold Purashartha namely, dharma, artha, karma and moksha. Buddhism indicates towards moksha only and is a monastic religion.” In the context of incarnation theory Prof. Explained that having common inheritance Hinduism and Buddhism believe that there is propagation of dharma at the first level then at the second it flourishes and deviation follows so there are falls and facilities creeping in. In Hinduism Vishnu incarnates and in Buddhism Samyaksarn-budha comes to set the world order incorrect direction. It is said before the appearance of Gautama Buddha there were 25 earlier Buddhas and the process is on. In Hinduism we find the transcendental Hiranyagarba who is omnipotent and cause and result of all. Likewise, Buddhism talks about Adi Buddha who is similarly transcendental.

During the prolong discussion it is learnt most of the scholars who are pursuing Indological and Buddhist studies do not know how to read the ancient scripts which is creating a real problem of exact comprehension and interpretation of the text. This is a global problem and perhaps young pass outs must be taught the ancient scripts in Universities so that they can bring to the light the Buddhist contemplation, which took place millennium ago.