Hartmann, Jens-Uwe

English

Universität München: Elektronischen Publikationen

MANUSCRIPTS IN THE SCH0YEN COLLECTION 
BUDDHIST MANUSCRIPTS 
Valurne 111 
General Editor: 
Jens Braarvig 
Editorial Committee: 
Jens Braarvig, Paul Harrison, Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Kazunobu Matsuda, Lore Sander 
HERMES PUBLISHING · OSLO 
2006 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
CONVENTIONS 
ABBREVIATIONS 
I) Sütra: 
a) Ägama: 
CONTENTS 
1. A Version of the Sikhälakasütra/Siilgälovädasutta, Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Klaus Wille 
Xl 
Xlll 
XVll 
XIX 
2. MaitreyavyäkaraQa, Jens-Uwe Hartmann 7 
b) Mahäyäna: 
3. Fragments ofthe Bodhisattvapitakasütra, Jens Braarvig, Ulrich Pagel 11 
4. Vajracchedikä Prajiiäpäramitä, Paul Harrison, Shogo Watanabe 89 
5. Vajracchedikä Prajiiäpäramitä: A New English Translation ofthe Sanskrit Text 
Basedon Two Manuscripts from Greater Gandhära, Paul Harrison 133 
II) Vinaya: 
6. The Prätimok~a-Vibhailga ofthe Mahäsärpghika-Lokottaravädins in Early Western 
Gupta Script, Seishi Karashima 161 
7. More Fragments ofKarmaväcanä Texts, Jin-il Chung 177 
8. A Vinaya Fragment on the Qualifications of a Vinayadhara, Shizuka Sasaki, Nobuyuki 
Yamagiwa 189 
III) Miscellaneous: 
9. A Fragment ofa Commentary (?) on a Hitherto Unknown Recension ofthe Mahä-
samäjasütra, Siglinde Dietz, Olle Qvarnström, Peter Skilling 195 
10. Fragments of the A vadänasataka, Mitsuyo Demoto Hahn 207 
11. A Fragment of a Play, Jens-Uwe Hartmann 245 
12. A Copper Scroll Inscription from the Time ofthe Alchon Huns, Gudrun Melzer, 
in collaboration with Lore Sander 251 
13. Radiocarbon Dating ofKharo~thi Fragments from the Sch0yen and Senior 
Manuscript Collections, Mark Allon, Richard Salomon, Geraldine Jacobsen, 
U go Zoppi 279 
14. On the Metre ofthe Verses ofthe Sarvadharmäpravrttinirdesa, Asao Iwamatsu 293 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 301 
PLATES 317 
Photographs ofthe possible place of origin ofBuddhist manuscripts in the Sch0yen 
Collection I-Il 
Facsimiles 
A Fragment of a Play * 
Jens-Uwe Hartmann 
Among the fragments added to the Sch0yen Collection since the summer of 2002, there is a piece 
that is remarkable for several reasons. First, it preserves part of a play. Second, the play is 
unknown. And third, it is the first example ofthat literary geme among the many manuscripts from 
Afghanistan. Not altogether unexpectedly, since plays were found a hundred years ago among the 
Sanskrit manuscripts from Central Asia, 1 it confirms an acquaintance with that kind of diversion on 
the part of educated Buddhists all along the ancient Silk Road, wherever Sanskrit was used by the 
religious elite. It is impossible, öf course, to deduce from the few surviving fragments if the plays 
were ever staged there or only enjoyed as a literary geme. Judging from the evidence offered by 
the Central Asian fmds, the latter rather appears to be the case, since both the manuscripts containing 
plays2 are written on palm leaf and may have been imported from India. Among the indigenous 
paper manuscripts which represent the overwhelming majority ofthe Central Asian finds, no plays 
are preserved. This hints at the possibility that these works did not form part of the shift from 
imported to locally adopted literature3, and this in turn would seem to speak agairrst aperformative 
use of the texts. 
Regrettably, only a single fragment of the new play has tumed up so far, but it preserves 
enough textto leave no doubt that it is indeed a play that we are dealing with here. Except for the 
division into acts, all the characteristics of the geme are found: 
1. A vidü$aka, a ''jester," appears (line al). 
2. Abbreviations are used, and presumably for speaking actors: if vidü in a5 and b5 is an 
abbreviation for vidü$aka, and this is very likely, it becomes possible to understand ama in b2 as 
an abbreviation of amatya, all the more so since an amatya, a "minister," is clearly involved in the 
action ( cf. b5). 
3. The text consists of a mixture of prose and verse; in a2 pravrajyavyavasayam asya yad 
a//1 corresponds to the beginning of a Sardülavikri<;lita verse, and dr$tva hy astamitarkasailasa/11 in 
a3 agairr could form the beginning of a Sardülavikri<;lita. In b3 we fmd the first half of an Anu~tubh 
in imaf!l balyau maya tyaktaf!1 kulavrk$Ziflkuraf!l mama, and b6 most probably contains another 
Anu~tubh with the end of the half verse after päf!lsubhi/:1, kkrüjitaf!l saha paf!lsubhi/:1, representing 
the even quarter of an Anu~tubh verse. 
4. The language is a mixture of Sanskrit and Prakrit; for Prakrit passages see pekkhitum at 
the beginning of a5 and the brief sentence spoken by the vidü$aka in b5. 
* It is my pleasant duty to thank Stefan Baums, who independently identified the fragment as a play and kindly 
provided me with his provisional transliteration and translation. This was fortunate, since it made me rethink and 
correct some ofmy previous readings. Christine Chojnacki (Lyon), Anna Esposito (Würzburg), and Paul Harrison read 
earlier drafts of my manuscript and made valuable comments on it, for which I am very grateful to them. A German 
version of this paper will appear in Hartmann forthcoming. 
1 Lüders 19lla and Lüders 19llb. 
2 Catalogue numbers 16 and 57, cf. SHT I: lüf. and 37f. 
3 However, the picture is complicated by the fact that the second manuscript (Catalogue nurober 57) is a palimpses1 
written in an early form of Central Asian Brähmi. In other words, only the material was imported, but the text was 
written in Central Asia. 
246 J. -U. HARTMANN 
5. The text contains stage directions, as in a2 nirvan:zya, "having contemplated," and in a5 
ni$kriiJ?1fO, "exit." 
Thus the evidence is unequivocal. It is less easy, however, to decide whether this is a Buddhist 
play. The fragment preserves neither a decisive name nor a significant term which could help in 
answering that question. The compound pravrajyiivyavasiiya-if it is a compound-in a2 probably 
means "the decision (to receive) ordination," andpravrajyii is a term that is employed extensively, 
but not exclusively, by the Buddhists. In al the word visiikhafJ is found; could it perhaps refer to 
the husband of Visäkhä, also known as Mrgäramätä, the "leading female lay disciple" of the 
Buddha ( cf. :ßHSD)? This is impossible to answer. Among the other words and expressions I for 
,,, 
one fail to see anything specifically Buddhist. 
In fact Buddhist compositions count among the oldest plays we know. As already mentioned 
they were found in Central Asia, unfortunately not fully preserved, but surviving only in small 
fragments. Until ten years ago, one of the oldest Indian manuscripts available to us was the 
so-called "Dramenhandschrift," the manuscript containing plays. This palm leaf manuscript was 
found a hundred years ago in Qizil by one oftheGerman expeditions.4 It was dated to approximately 
the second century by Heinrich Lüders, who edited the fragments in 1911.5 Originally, the manuscript 
may have contained three plays, and at least one of them, the Siiriputraprakarm:za, was written by a 
Buddhist poet, the farnaus Asvagho~a. This proves that Buddhist writers participated in the very 
refined literary art of composing plays. They may have been quite active in this field, but even if 
so, very few traces of those activities have been preserved. There is no translation of a play into 
Chinese, and Tibetan translations are available of only two later plays, one by Candragomin,6 
possibly from the 5th century/ and the other by Har~adeva8 from the 7th century. The present 
fragment is another trace, and to date the only one from Afghanistan and the area of Greater 
Gandhära. 
Description of the fragment 
The material is palm leaf, and the script represents a late variety of the Gupta type, perhaps to be 
dated to the 5th or 6th century (cf. Sander 1968: alphabet k, Tables 9-20). The folio contains six 
lines; only its right part is preserved. There is no trace of a string hole, usually placed on the left 
side of a folio, and this renders it difficult to guess the totallength of the originalleaf. However, 
metrics offer at least a possible start. Line a2 begins with a Särdülavikric;l.ita verse, and line a4 
contains the end of a verse in the same metre. Line a3 presents a prob lern: evidently it contains the 
end of one päda and the beginning of the next. While the latter is clearly a Särdiilavikric;l.ita too, the 
metre of the preceding päda is difficult to assess, since it does not appear to fit into any metrical 
scheme. However, when slightly modified by deleting the word na, it becomes another perfect 
Särdillavikric;l.ita päda. Presuming this emendation to be justified and necessary, two possibilities 
suggest themselves. The words 1//hair dhruvam iha svaifJ karmabhir me {na} krtam* in line a3 
4 Cf. SHT I, no. 16 (p. 1 0) and the facsimile on plate 1 of the same volume. 
5 However, according to a Radiocarbon dating recently ordered by the Staatsbibliothek zu Ber1in the calibrated dates 
are 264, 270 or 340 CE. I thank Dr. Hartmut-Ortwin Feiste! of the Staatsbibliothek for niaking this information 
available to me. 
6 Hahn 1974; for an Eng1ish translation see Hahn 1987. 
7 Cf. Hahn 1993: 45ff. 
8 Cf. Steiner 1997, esp. pp. 286-287 for editions and translations. 
PLAY 247 
represent either the second or the fourth quarter of the verse beginning in line a2. If the second, 
only 15 ak~aras would be missing in the frrst part of line a3 (8 of pada a and 7 of pada b ); if the 
fourth, the gap would comprise 53 ak~aras (again 8 ofpada a, twice 19 ofpadas band c, and 7 of 
pada d). The relation between lines a3 and a4 is practically identical: either 13 or 51 ak~aras would 
be missing (9 of pada a and 4 of pada b or d). In the light of line a4, the first possibility can be 
ruled out, since a4 definitely contains a fourth quarter, and this will only fit if a2 preserves pada a 
of a frrst Sardülavikri<;lita verse, a3 pada d of the same verse and pada a of the second, and a4 pada 
d of the second. If this somewhat complicated deduction proves right, each line contains about 70 
to 75 syllables which would mean that only one third ofthe folio is preserved. 
Transliteration 
MS 2381/265; A 
1 /// .. tu maharajo balo tava hakam* vidü~ako moharp.gatal). visakhal;t a 
2 /II + vyam* nirvamya · saba~pal;t atha va II pravrajyavyavasayam asya yad a 
3 I I I + .. hair dhruvam iha svail;t karmabhir me na lqtam * dr~tva hy astamitarkasailasa 
4 /II .. n. sa sthitarp. mama na tat karturp. samartho ntakal). visvilal). gacchami haga[m]~ 
5 /II .. [j]arp. pekkhitum* ni~krarp.to visvilal). pratl· mama pratihara va · vidü · 
6 /II + + .. nta gaccha paurajanarp. brühi · atha va ti~[tha] svayam abhidhas.a[m]i 
B 
1 /// + + .. ma · mahäraja · raja iha sarp.kkrantarp. raj. tvam api tu· s. h. [pa].[s]u 
2 /II + [bha]vantam* ama · ajfiapayatu maharajal;t raja · na khalu vyarp.sayitavyal;t 
3 /II [ha] raja · i[m]arp. balyau maya tyaktarp. kulavrk~äilkurarp. mama · gurvyarp. rajadhuri nya 
4 !II + .. s te dadati · pratigrhya camatyo bhümaujanubhyärp.10 patital). parp.sukkri 
5 /II mi · vi[dü] · hanta patitthito khu pukkharapalito · amatyal). svamin* cha 
6 /II .a dhatristanau pltau kkri<;litarp. saha parp.subhil;t sarp.pratarp. ca tapas carturp. na ma 
Reconstruction 
(al) /// .. tu maharajo balo tava hakam* vidü~ako moharp.gatal;t 
visäkhal;t a(a2)/ I I 
/II vyam* 
nirvamya · saba~pal;t 
atha va II 
pravrajyavyavasayam asya yad a (a3) - 1 - - v - - v x 
___ ....,....,_..._,_.....,....,....,_1--v--vX 
___ .....,....,_.....,_vvv-j--v--vX 
- - - v v - v hair dhruvam iha svail;t karmabhir me { na} lqtam* 
dr~tva hy astamitarkasailasa (a4) v - 1 - - v - - v x 
9 Most probably viräma, but it is not very clear which letter is written below, perhaps a t or an m. 
10 Thejä shows traces ofan-apparently deleted-epr~tamatra. 
248 J. -U. HARTMANN 
___ ....,....,_....,_.....,.",........,_1-- ...... -- ...... x 
___ .....,.....,_.....,_....., .......... _[--.....,--....,X 
--- v n(a) sa(:rp)sthitarp. mama na tat karturp samartho 'ntakal). 
visvilal). gacchami hagam* (aS) /II 
II/ .. jarp. pekkhitum* 
ni~krarp.to visvilal). pratl · 
mama pratihara va · 
vidü (a6) /II 
(raja?) /// .. ntfi gaccha paurajanarp. brühi · atha va ti~tha svayam abhidhas(y)ami (bl) /// 
(a)ma · maharaja · 
:raJa iha sarp.kk:rantarp. raj(a)tvam api tu· s(a)h(a)pa(rp.)su (b2) /II 
/II bhavantam* 
ama. ajfiapayatu maharajal). 
:raja · na khalu vyarp.sayitavyal). (b3) II/ 
111 ha ra:ja:~. 
imarp. balyau maya tyaktarp. kulavrk~ankurarp. mama · 
gurvyarp. rajadhuri nya (b4) X X X X X V- V X II/ 
I I I s te dadati · pratig:rhya camatyo bhümau j anubhyärp. patital). parp.sukkrl (bS) I I I 
/II mi · 
vidü · hanta patitthito khu pukkharapalito · 
amatyal). · svamin* cha (b6) /II 
x .a dhatristanau pltau kk:rl<;l.itarp. saha parp.subhil). 
särp.pratarp. ca tapas carturp. na ma x x v - v x I I I 
Translation 
(al) ... the great king, the boy so far am I (?)11 • The Vidü~aka is confused. 
Visakha: ... should ... 
(a2) ... Having contemplated, in tears, (he says): 
Or 
His decision for ordination12 ( a3) ... lasting in this world what is done to me through my 
own deeds. 
For, having seen the ... ofthe mountain ofthe sunset ... (a4) ... not remairring forme; 
death is not able to do this 13• 
Visvila: I will go (?). 
(aS) ... to Iook at. 
Exit Visvila, to himselj!in expectation14 : Or you should announce yourselfto me! 
Vidü§aka: ( a6) ... 
11 Prakrit hakam for Skt. aham, like hagam in line a4? Without more context, the meaning ofthe sentence is difficult 
to assess. 
12 A possible continuation would be pravrajyävyavasäyam asya yad a(harrz ... ), "That I have to (witness/stand etc.) his 
decision for ordination." 
13 Or, ifmama is connected with karturrz, "death is not able to do this forme." 
14 pratifor praticinam or something like this, "back to one's self'? Or from pratik$-, "looking backward"? 
PLAY 
(Räja?): ... go 15 (and) talk to the townsfolk! Or stay, (and) I will address (them) myself (bl) ... 
Minister: Great king! 
King: Here sovereignty is transferred, but yet: a :friend from childhood16 (b2) ... you, sir. 
Minister: Let the great king command! 
King: By no means is he to be cheated (b3) ... 
249 
King: Hirn whom I abandoned in childhood17, a sprout ofmy family tree, in the heavy yoke ofthe 
king(s position) (b4) ... 18 
... he gives you/9 and the minister, having received (it), feil on his knees to the ground, the 
:friend from childhoocf0 (bS) ... 
1. .. 
Vidü~aka: Look, installed is the one protected by Pu~kara21 • 
Minister: Master, (b6) ... 
(Y ouY2 drank from the breast of the nurse and played with sand; but presently to 
practice austerity is not ... 
15 Restore to (ha)nta, "look!"? 
16 In the light ofM pärrzsukkri//1 and b6 kkrüf.itarrz saha pärrzsubhil; this is possibly tobe restored to s(a)h(a)pä(rrz)su(krirf.ita) 
orthe like. · 
17 bälyau apparently mistake for bälye. 
18 Reconstruct nya//1 to a form of nyas, "to place in"? 
19 Or, if (ha)ste has tobe reconstructed, "he gives into the hand". 
2° Cf. note 17 above. 
21 Without more context, the precise reference of this word or name is difficult to establish; should it be understood as 
a personal name, Pu~karapalita? 
22 Or "I", depending on the speaker, since the ak~ara remains hintat tvayä or mayä. 


A Fragment of a Play

https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/21220/1/Hartmann_21220.pdf

A Fragment of a Play

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Universität München: Elektronischen Publikationen