Re: Textual criticism of Pali writings

Dear Bryan,

To offer a (small indeed) suggestion to your (so broad!) question, I would
like to point out the first, 2009 issue of the *Thai International Journal
of Buddhist Studies*, especially the contributions by Nalini Balbir and
Richard Gombrich, which are among the freshest and as a matter of fact the
most excellent and up to date. Prof. Balbir's article includes further
thoughts on this crucial topic, including a more feasible project of
critically editing *separate* suttas for which we do have enough textual
variants. As you well know, intense re-reading of Profs K R Norman (with his
outstanding plea for reediting most of the PTS editions) and Oskar von
Hinüber's (including on the earliest Mln MS) longlife oeuvres may correctly
posit this inquiry. But there are indeed joint academic programs for
completing this huge task?

The comparison you suggests with some 'religions of the Book' is not only
apt: it deserved highly persuasive arguments for broadening the scope and
academic presence of Buddhist Studies in general, in some recent
publications of Prof Jonathan Silk. However, it goes sometimes unnoticed, it
seems, that when we try (sometimes hard) to cast off those "Protestant
presuppositions" once recurrent in Buddhist studies, we are still inspired
by methods employed in earlier periods for other textual traditions, with
the well-balanced aim at recovering what one recent Berlin program coined as
'Zukunftphilologie'. And from this angle your question, and the project as
such, has its roots in Burnouf's works (published and still unpublished).

with every good wish
Eugen

2011/4/23 Bryan Levman <bryan.levman@...>

>
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> Vis a vis Ven. Yuttadhammo's discussion on textual forms, is anyone aware
> of any academic work done on the subject of Pali textual criticism - i. e.
> the origin and nature of the texts that have come down to us, the relation
> and differences between them, the process of oral and written textual
> transmission, reconciliation of variants, etc?
>
> In the field of the Jewish/Christian bible, an enormous amount of work has
> been done in this area, but they have manuscripts dating back to the 2nd and
> 3rd century BC, whereas most of our manuscripts are quite recent. I believe
> the oldest Pali manuscript is only about 450 years old, although we have
> recensions of the Dhammapada from the first and/or second century A. D.
> written in Gandhari.
>
> If anyone knows any scholarly work done on this subject I would appreciate
> a reference(s),
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bryan
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>



--
--
Dr E. Ciurtin
Secretary of the Romanian Association for the History of Religions
http://ihr-acad.academia.edu/EugenCiurtin

Publications Officer of the European Association for the Study of Religions
www.easr.eu

Lecturer & Secretary of the Scientific Council
Institute for the History of Religions, Romanian Academy
Calea 13 Septembrie no. 13 sect. 5, Bucharest 050711
Phone: +40 733 951 953 or +40 721 877 659
www.ihr-acad.ro


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]