Re: Textual criticism of Pali writings

Dear Bryan,

K. R. Norman, Peter Skilling and especially Dr. von Hinueber have
published a lot on the textual traditions of Pali .

Norman's /A Philological Approach to Buddhism /and his /Collected
Papers/, Hinueber's /Selected Papers/, /The Oldest Pali Manuscript /(a
description and edition of the 4 folios of the Cullavagga, dating from
the 8-9th century), /Notes on the Pali Tradition in Burma, Pali as an
Artificial Language, /and Peter Skilling's articles on the Pali
inscriptions in Thailand and Burma  in the /Journal of the Pali Text
Society /will give you a lot of information.

Please also have a look at my articles on Pali Manuscripts of Sri Lanka
and SE Asian Pali manuscripts in Sri Lanka.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/34598208/Pali-Manuscripts-of-Sri-Lanka

(You'd need to sign up to Scribd to see this, which is free. Otherwise I
can send you a copy.)

Regards,
                  Bhikkhu Nyanatusita

On 23-4-2011 17:19, Bryan Levman wrote:
>
> 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
>
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>
>



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