Re: Textual criticism of Pali writings

There is also Margaret Cone's article 'caveat lector' in JPTS XXIX 2007.


Steve Collins


--- On Sat, 4/23/11, Bryan Levman <bryan.levman@...> wrote:

> From: Bryan Levman <bryan.levman@...>
> Subject: Re: [palistudy] Textual criticism of Pali writings
> To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 1:42 PM
> Dear Eugen,
>
> Thanks very much for your response and helpful suggestions.
> Of course I am very familiar with Norman and von Hinueber's
> work. Von Hinueber was in Toronto this past weekend at a
> Conference on Buddhist Nuns sponsored by the Numata and I
> discussed some of the problems with him.
>
> The articles you recommended in the Thai Journal look right
> on topic. I was not able to locate the journal articles on
> the net. Do you know if they're available?
>
> Do you know where Norman makes the plea for re-editing the
> PTS? I have his complete works here. Also any other
> references you can give for the works of Silk or Burnouf on
> textual criticism would be appreciated. As someone whose
> primary work is with Buddhist texts (my area of research is
> the earliest recoverable language of Buddhism and the
> process of its transmission) I have long accepted the state
> of our texts as a "given", but it is becoming more and more
> apparent to me, that we can not just leave it at that,
>
> Warm regards, Bryan
>
>
> --- On Sat, 4/23/11, Eugen Ciurtin <eu.s.ciurtin@...>
> wrote:
>
> From: Eugen Ciurtin <eu.s.ciurtin@...>
> Subject: Re: [palistudy] Textual criticism of Pali
> writings
> To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
> Received: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 12:49 PM
>
> 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]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>     palistudy-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>