THE SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA AT GILGIT
MANUSCRIPTS, WORSHIPPERS, AND ARTISTS
The Gilgit library, the only surviving library from ancient India, was discovered bychance in 1931 at Naupur near Gilgit at the site of an ancient building often mistakenly
thought to have been a stūpa. Recent researches by G. Fussman, however, point into a
different direction. As far as this can be deduced from the rather poorly documented
archaeological evidence, the building was a small lived-in tower rather and a living
place for monks thus resembling edifices, which can be seen on images from ancient
Gandhāra. The monk(s), who used this small perhaps two-storied building, served as
religious advisers, possibly also practitioners of rituals, and certainly as healers to the
local Buddhist community. This is confirmed by two medical texts found among thebooks recovered from Naupur/Gilgit. Recently Fussman’s findings were more
supplemented than contradicted by G. Schopen, who certainly correctly emphasizedother activities of the monks as scribes and copyists of Buddhist manuscripts1. The site
seems to be covered by a Muslim cemetery today2.
It is impossible at present to determine the exact number of texts, or, perhaps titles
rather3, and manuscripts preserved in this library once. One of the reasons is that thefacsimile edition, useful as it is, does not allow reassembling the folios dispersed after
the discovery of manuscripts split up into different parts4. This could be done only inusing the originals5. Consequently, only an estimate is possible according to which there
were approximately 50 manuscripts containing 57 titles plus 17 Avadānas, which may
or may not have been preserved as separate texts or as parts of an as yet uncertain
number of Avadāna collections.
The Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra figures prominently among the Gilgit manuscripts,
because no less than four manuscripts are preserved in the collection. Three manuscripts
are kept in the National Archives in New Delhi which are split up into different parts
numbered as serial nos. 44, 45, 47a, 48, and 49. Moreover, there are stray folios in theserial numbers 50a, 52a, 52d,26.
A large number of these folios was edited by Shoko Watanabe:
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra Manuscripts Found at Gilgit. Tokyo Part I (1972), Part 2(1974), whose “Group A” comprises the 120 folios from serial no. 45 (FE pages
2813-3052), “GroupB” comprises 14 folios from serial no. 44 (FE pages 2785-2812), 33
folios from serial no. 47a (FE pages 3053-3118), while 2 folios from serial no. 49 (FEpages 3217-3220) and 2 folios from serial no. 52d,2 (FE pages 3311-3312) are missing
in S. Watanabe’s edition though they actually are folios 99, a fragment from the XXthParivarta as well as 71 and 72 of his “Group B” respectively. The same is true for serial
no. 52a (FE page 3306), which consists of the right half of folio 102a,b in S.
Watanabe’s edition and of folios 65 and 98 of “GroupB” (FE pages 3496/3495 and3499/3500) buried in serial no. 50, which otherwise contains folios of a large
Prajñāpāramitā text. Lastly, serial no.48 (FE pages 3121-3216) contains 48 folios of S.
Watanabe’s “Group C”, which were edited by Hirofumi Toda:
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra Gilgit Manuscripts (Groups B and C), in: Tokushima
Daigaku Kyōyōbu Kiyō (Jinbun-Shakai Kagaku) 14. 1979, p. 249-304, particularly p.
249-300. Twenty additional folios of this manuscript were edited later also by H. Toda:
Gilgit Manuscripts (Tucci’s Collection) Group C, in: Tokushima Daigaku Kyōyōbu
Rinrigakka kiyō 15. 1988. This transcript is based on photos preserved in Rome andpublished by Raniero Gnoli: The Gilgit Manuscript of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtram,
in: Orientalia Iosephi Tucci Memoriae Dicata. Vol. 11. Serie Orientale Roma LVI, 2.
Rome 1987, p. 533 and plates I-XX. Lastly, seven folios are preserved in the British
Library. Only this part of the manuscript appears in S. Watanabe’s edition as “GroupC.”
Finally, a large fragment of a fourth Gilgit manuscript comprising 30 folios which
are preserved today in Kashmir (the exact location is not known) was edited by O.v.
Hinüber: A new fragmentary manuscript of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. Tokyo 19827.
A facsimile of all fragments accompanies by this edition.
Apart from this facsimile, the Gilgit manuscripts of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
are also available in black and white facsimiles, which were published from Delhi
between 1959 and 1974 by Lokesh Chandra as mentioned in note 4. Furthermore,
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra manuscripts are also available electronically as facsimiles
reproduced from various microfilms of the National Archives at Delhi on a set of
CD-ROMs published by the Rissho University. Here, the Gilgit manuscripts are foundon CD-ROM Vol. II nos. 9 and 10 containing only the serial numbers 44, 45, and 47.
All of the Gilgit manuscripts of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra are written on birch
bark, with the notable exception of manuscript no. 48 (“Group C”) written on so called“clay-coated paper,” which was described and chemically analysed by R. Kishore: A
Clay-coated manuscript in the Gilgit Collection. The Indian Archives. New Delhi 15.
1963/63, p. 1-3. This is the only Gilgit manuscript in its entirety written on thisparticular sort of “paper,” while very few other manuscripts, e.g., no. 36 Saṃghāṭasūtra(manuscript “F”) are written partly on birch bark and partly on “paper.”Only rarely colophons of the Gilgit manuscripts are preserved. By lucky
coincidence, two Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra manuscripts are among them. This is of

eminent interest and importance, because the persons mentioned in the colophons as
donors of the manuscript are, at the same time, the first worshippers of the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, whom we know by name. These names were probably kept
alive in the local Buddhist community also after the manuscript was donated. For it issaid in the Śayanāsanavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya8:uktaṃ ca bhagavatā abhyatītakālagatānāṃ dānapatīnāṃ nāmnā dakṣiṇā ādeṣṭavyā iti.
saṃghasthaviro ’bhyatītakālagatānāṃ dānapatīnāṃ arthāya gāthāṃ bhāṣate
“And it was said by the Lord: ‘Reward must be ascribed by name to the deceased,
passed away donors.’
The senior-most monk in the community recites a verse for the benefit of the deceased,
passed away donors.”
Although this paragraph refers to the donation of a monastery, it is not at all unlikelythat other donations such as manuscripts, which were held in high esteem, were also
accompanied by a recitation of the names of those who donated them. Moreover, it
seems likely although this is not clearly stated in the text quoted above that it was acustom to repeat the recitation of the names of the deceased donors to keep alive theirmemory. Thus it is not impossible that the names of the donors of the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra were remembered in Gilgit over a longer period of time.
Fortunately, it is certain that we have at least the colophon to manuscript “C,”because the end of the text immediately precedes the colophon, or better colophons. For
there is first a colophon added to the text of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra and a second
one composed by and for the donors of the individual manuscripts. The colophon
attached to manuscript a colophon with a string of attributes praising the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra is used comprising the verse:aṃgārakarṣūṅ gāhitvā ākramya kṣurasaṃstaraṃ.
gantavyaṃ kulaputreṇa yatra sūtram ida[ṃ] bhavet.
“A son of a good family must go where the Sūtra is (even)after having dived into pits (filled with) burning coals, having stepped upon scatteredrazors.”This line is continued until the end of the Nepalese manuscript tradition in the 19th
century, while this verse (and other verses added occasionally) are missing in a secondline of the manuscript tradition, which begins in the 11th century in Nepal9.

The colophon of manuscript “C” was made known by Sylvain Lévi as early as in1932 in the very first publication of texts from the Gilgit find. The text given here isbased on “Die Palola Ṣāhis” p. 81f. No. 41B with some minor corrections10:… yatra sūtram ida[ṃ] bhavet ‖ /1/ devadharme (!) yaṃ mahāsraddhopāsaka (1)lerakṣiṇena. (2) tathā sardhaṃ śiri/2/yena. (3) tathā śuśureṇa. (4) tathā mahāśiriyena.
(5) tathā chchāḍipuruṣe sithusighena. (6) tathā sārdhaṃ putraena. (7) tathāvā/3/śāsighena leranihelapatinā. (8) tathā jīvasidhiyena. (9) tathā vupharṇena. (10)sidhasighena. /4/ (11) tathā sārdhaṃ mahādharmabhāṇaka ācārya bhikṣu krayādhanakalyāṇatrāt[e]na. (12) tathā sārdhaṃ mahādharmabhāṇaka bhikṣu
dhrarme/5/dramatinā. (13) tathā sārdhaṃ aṣṭauliyena saṃcavamena. (14) tathāsārdhaṃ bhikṣunā kṣemaena. (15) tathā cikirirṣeṇa. (16) tathā sārdhaṃ /6/ burīsukhena.
(17) tathā sārdhaṃ sāitāpuruṣe vargasighena. (18) tathā mātumena. (18a) jīvakṣinena.
(19) tathā maṅgalaśiriyena /7/ (20) tathā burikṣiṇena. (21) tathā sārdhaṃ
cvavaśiriyena. (22) tathā kulācīnā aparṣikena. (23) tathā khukhuphanena. (24) tathāpevoṭhī/8/yena. (25) tathā daśiyena. (26) tathā śāraśriyena. (27) tathā mulāriyena. (28)tathā utrupharṇena. (29) tathā kararatsena. /9/ (30) tathā kālagatena pitunā cikirirṣeṇa.
(31) kālagata vālosenana(!). (32) kālagata sagarkaena. (33) kālagata vā/10/sath≈lena.
(34) kālagata khukhathūlena. (35) kālagata khukhiyena. (36) kālagata pharṇena. (37)kālagata cvarmakṣiṇena. /11/ (38) kālagata lerapukhrena. (39) kālagata putreṇaṇa (!)śūlaphanana. (40) kālagata mitapharṇena. (41) kālagata khukha/12/ + (ś)ena. (42)kālagata si + + + + +. (43) (kālagata vālo)sighena“This is the pious donation by (1) the most devout upāsaka Lerakṣiṇa. (2) together with
Śiri/2/. (3) with Śuśura. (4) with Mahāśiri. (5) with Chchāḍipuruṣe-Sithusiṅgha11. (6)together with (his?) son. (7) with Vā/3/śāsiṅgha Lera-nihelapati. (8) with Jīvasidhi. (9)with Vupharṇa. (10) Sidhasiṅgha. /4/ (11) together with the Mahādharmabhāṇaka (and)Ācārya the monk Krayādhana Kalyāṇatrāta. (12) together with the Mahādharmabhāṇaka
the monk Dhrarme/5/dramati. (13) together with Aṣṭauli(ya) Saṃcavama. (14) together
with the monk Kṣema. (15) with Cikirirṣa. (16) together with /6/ Burīsukha. (17)together with Sāitāpuruṣe-Vargasiṅgha. (18) with Mātuma. (18a) Jīvakṣina. (19) withMaṅgalaśiri /7/ (20) with Burĭkṣiṇa. (21) together with Cvavaśiri. (22) with Kulācīna
Aparṣika. (23) with Khukhuphana. (24) with Pevoṭhi /8/ . (25) with Daśi. (26) withŚāraśri. (27) with Mulāri. (28) with Utrupharṇa. (29) with Kararatsa. /9/ (30) with thedeceased father Cikirirṣa. (31) the deceased Vālosena. (32) the deceased Sagarka. (33)the deceased Vā/10/sath≈la. (34) the deceased Khukhathūla. (35) the deceased Khukhi.
(36) the deceased Pharṇa. (37) the deceased Cvarmakṣiṇa. /11/ (38) the deceased

Lerapukhra. (39) (his?) deceased son Śūlaphana. (40) the deceased Mitapharṇa. (41) the
deceased Khukha/12/ + (ś)a. (42) the deceased Si + + + + +. (43) the deceased
Vālosiṅigha.”This, then, is the first time in the history of Indian Buddhism that a group of lay people
venerating the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra speaks to us directly.
The names are discussed in some detail in “Die Kolophone derGilgit-Handschriften12.” They point to fairly international group of donors. Names
ending in °pha(r)ṇa (nos 9, 23, 28, 36, 39, 40) show Iranian influence as does no. 38
Lera-pukhra containing the Iranian, possibly Bactrian or Parthian word for “son”
pukhra13, wichi is also discussed below. On the other hand those containing the elementpuruṣe (nos. 5 and 17) point to a local language of the Gilgit area, Burushaski, as do
those formed with khukha/khukhu (nos. 34, 35, 41). Others are hybrid names such as the
Burushaski-Iranian name no. 23 Khukhuphana, and many are simply obscure.
It is not only the large number of names that point to a major donation. There arethree monks involved in this project (nos. 11, 12, 14), the first two being senior monks
as mahādharmabhāṇakas. Obviously, the more venerable monk, as indicated by his
titles Mahādharmabhāṇaka and Ācārya, Krayādhana Kalyāṇatrāta is named first. The
word krayādhana or perhaps rather krayādhara as read by Sylvain Lévi is obscure but
should also be a title14. The next person is the Mahādharmabhāṇaka the monk
Dhrarmedramati, whose name corresponds to standard Sanskrit Dharmendramati. The
peculiar linguistic form of his name is of particular interest because dhrarma instead ofdharma shows a typically north-western linguistic feature the so-called “Dardic
metathesis of liquids,” which confirms that this was a local monk and, consequently,that the donation was in all likelihood a local project.
The following name no. 13 Aṣṭauliya Saṃcavama is enigmatic. The name in itself
is obscure; aṣṭauliya or aṣṭauli should be a title, higher in rank than that of a simple
monk (bhikṣu), because Saṃcavama precedes the bhikṣu Kṣema.
It should be noted that the names of all three monks are Sanskrit, while otherwisenames that could be derived from Sanskrit constitute a small minority of six out of
probably 44 persons enumerated (2, 4 , 8 , 10, 18a[?], 19). For, given the obscure
derivation of most names, it is by no means always clear how to segment names andtitles, and consequently to arrive at an exact number of donors.
Fourteen of the at least forty-four persons mentioned in the colophon were dead at
the moment of the donation (nos. 30-43), and, consequently, the merit made wastransferred to them. The first among the deceased is no. 30 the father Cikirirṣa, and it isremarkable that there is a second living person also named Cikirirṣa (no. 15). Most
likely the deceased Cikirirṣa was the father of the principal donor Lerakṣiṇa, who might
be an Iranian, if no. 38 Lerapukhra is compared15. Moreover no. 20 Buri-kṣiṇa can becompared to no. 1 Lera-kṣiṇa, and, furthermore no. 16 Burī-sukha to Buri-kṣiṇa. If Lerais the son of Lerakṣiṇa, he is named after his father as is Mamu-pukhra after his mother(see below).
It is striking that at a first glance not a single woman seems to have participated in
the donation, because all names end in –(y)ena, a masculine ending. This is all the moreastonishing once the Gilgit bronzes are compared where women abound. However, thisimpression is a deception, because in these formulas masculine case endings are also
used with feminine personal names. Therefore, names such as °śiriyena may well beending in °śrī, and could be feminine (or masculine, of course). However, no. 24Pevoṭhī certainly is a lady, as are most likely no. 25 Daśi, no . 26 Śāraśrī, no. 27 Mulāri,and no. 19 Maṅgalaśrī, and moreover, no. 2 Śiri (Śrī), perhaps the wife of Lerakṣiṇa
placed next to him (?) and no. 4 Mahāśrī. Thus at least seven ladies are mentioned.
Masculine names ending in -oṭ(h)a- are well attested in the inscriptions along theUpper Indus, the area where all these people most likely lived, and these names haveregularly feminine forms ending in -oṭ(h)ī-. Thus, the name Pevoṭhī again points
inhabitants of the (perhaps wider) Gilgit area as donors.
It is not entirely certain whether or not a stray folio without pagination contains thecolophon to manuscript “A,” which is connected only tentatively to this manuscript by
S. Watanabe. The size however seems to fit. The reading of the colophon, which was
published in “Die Palola Ṣāhis,” no. 40B p. 80 could be improved in many places by thehelp of the excellent photos prepared for the planned new facsimile edition16.
/1/ ] (s)ya. (1) tathā sārdhaṃ mahāśraddhopāsikă mamuśiriyena. (2) mamupukhrasya.
(3) tathā sārdhaṃ vālopharṇasya (4) tathā sārdhaṃ mahāga[ṃ]{ja}pati dīlīka agaco/2/ [ ... tath]ā sārdhaṃ (5) sadāvidavagātureṇa. (6) tathā sārdhaṃ mahā(ṣṭha)āramatideśapharṇasya. (7) tahā sārdhaṃ khītāṃ-puruṣeṇa gakhrapatināṃ. (8) tathāsārdhaṃ sa /3/ [ …] sarvasatvānāṃ anut(!)a{ra}jñānavāpunāyā bhavati. ‖The first half of the folio containing approximately 18 akṣaras in each line is lost, if
complete folios of this manuscript are compared. In case the colophon started in line 1
as usual by deyadharmo yaṃ (5 akṣaras), the name of the principal donor (5 akṣaras)
tathā sārdhaṃ (3 akṣaras) and the name of a second donor (5 akṣaras) are lost, or,alternatively, only the name of the principal donor (5 akṣaras) and his title, e.g.,mahāśraddho-pāsaka (7 akṣaras). At a first glance the clearly recognizable remains of
the genitive ending ]sya at the beginning of line 1 seem to favour the second alternative.
However, tathā sārdhaṃ is also used together with the genitive instead of the
instrumental case in this and other colophons.
In lines 2 and 3 again 18 akṣaras each are missing. Here, it is impossible toestimate the number of donors, which could fill the gap, because of the varying lengthof names and titles. However, two names are the minimum of the text lost, and probably
three the maximum, because yad atra puṇyaṃ or the like should have preceded
sarvosatvānaṃ in line 3, which is written with a gap in the middle of the word assarvasa (gap) tvānāṃ because of a knothole. Therefore, about altogether a dozen
persons participated in the donation among them again one lady no. 2 Mamuśiri, a mostdevout upāsikā, and her son named obviously after his mother “the son of Mamu.” Thisis remarkable, because in ancient India, mothers are named after their sons not the otherway around, a well-known example being the former wife of the Buddha called
Rāhulamātā. In the colophon of manuscript “C” the name no. 38 Lera-pukhra, who isperhaps named after his father, if he is the deceased son of the principal donor no. 1
Lerakṣiṇa is eaually remarkable. Again there are Iranian names, such as no. 3
Vālopharṇa, cf. colophon “C” no. 43 Vālo-siṅgha and no. 32 Vālo-sena, and one
Burusho no. 7 Khītāṃ-puruṣa Gkhrapati, but not a single Sanskrit name. Most names
and titles are obscure. It is not impossible that no. 4 is a mahāgaṃ{ja}pati “greattreasurer” if the scribe dropped one character as in anut(!) ajñāna° for anuttarajñāna°.
The Iranian title (mahā)gaṃjapati occurs occasionally in inscriptions on bronzes17.
Thus the assumed colophon of the manuscript containing group “A” confirms theconclusions drawn from the colophon of group “C” that the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
was venerated by Buddhists from the Gilgit area as first of all the Burushaski names
indicate, and by devotees with an Iranian background, most likely from Central Asia.
This Central Asian connection is well known from other sources. Suffice it to recall theSoghdian merchants writing their names on the rocks at Shatial18. Moreover, it is wellknown that many fragmentary manuscripts and the voluminous Kashgar (Khotan)
manuscript of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra bear ample witness of the immense
popularity of this text in particular in the Khotan area19. The predilection of one
particular Buddhist text shared by Buddhists in Gilgit and in Khotan is well known also
in the case of the Saṃghāṭasūtra. The Saṃghāṭasūtra is better attested in Gilgit than any
other text with traces of altogether eight manuscripts preserved in the Gilgit libraryfollowed with four manuscripts each by the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka- and theBhaiṣajyaguru-sūtras. This again underlines the exceptional importance of theSaddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra for the Buddhists in ancient Gilgit, which can besubstantiated further in going beyond the evidence collected from the manuscripts of the
Gilgit library alone and looking also at other Buddhist documents from Gilgit.
Long ago the art historian Pran Gopal Paul drew attention to a possible connection
between the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra and one of the Gilgit bronzes in his thesis “Early
Sculpture of Kashmir.20” Paul maintained that the Gilgit bronze donated by the PalolaṢāhi Nandivikramādityanandi in the (Laukika) year 80 on the eighth bright day of themonth Vaiśākha (= 20th April 714) can be interpreted as Śākyamuni in the light of aparagraph found in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra (plate 1)21. For it is said in the tenthchapter, the Dharmabhāṇakaparivarta:
tathāgatapāṇiparimārjitamūrdhānaś ca te (sc. kulaptrā vā kuladuhitaro vā) bhaviṣyanti
ya imaṃ dharmaparyāyaṃ tathāgatasya parinirvṛtasya śraddadhiṣyanti vācayiṣyanti
likhiṣyanti satkariṣyanti gurukariṣyanti pareṣāṃ ca saṃśrāvayiṣyanti, SP (ed. H. Kern
231, 3-6)“The head of sons or daughters from good families, who after the Nirvāṇa of theTathāgata, will put their faith into this exposition of the Dharma (sc. the Lotus Sūtra),have it recited, write it, honour it, venerate it, and recite it to others will be touched by
the hand of the Tathāgata.”
The text is even more explicit in the twenty-sixth chapter, theSamantabhadrotsāhanaparivarta, when it is said again in connection withdharmabhāṇakas and with Samantabhadra also referring to the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra:Śākyamuninā ca tathāgatena teṣāṃ mūrdhni pāṇiḥ pratiṣṭhāpito bhaviṣyati, SP (ed. H.
Kern 480, 5 foll.)“The hand will be placed upon the head of those (who venerate Samantabhadra and hear
the Lotus Sūtra) by the Tathāgata Śākyamuni.”
It is not at all impossible that the artist(s), who created the bronze for King
Nandivikramādityanandi and, of cource the donor himself, were inspired by thisparagraph in the Lotus Sūtra. If so, the book carried by the supposed BuddhaŚākyamuni might well be a copy of this text22. It should be kept in mind, however, thatthe iconography of the bronzes cast for the Palola Ṣāhis is still poorly, if at allunderstood. At any rate the idea that the very unusual gesture of the Buddha’s righthand was inspired by reading the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra available in four copies in
the Gilgit library cannot be rejected from the very beginning, whether the donor had theTathāgata Śākyamuni in mind or not.
We are on much safer ground, if an image discovered at the site of Hodur a few
years ago is compared (plate 2)23. Here, we see two Buddhas sitting on either side of a
stūpa. This, of course, is a representation of the Buddhas Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna
as described in the eleventh chapter of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. Although it is saidin the text that Prabhūtaratna invites Śākyamuni to share his seat inside the stūpa
magically opened by the Buddha Śākyamuni, it is usual in Chinese art to show both
Buddhas by the side of the stūpa. The representation of this famous episode, popular as
it was in China, was completely absent from Indian art so far. Consequently, theimportance of this drawing on a rock at Hodur is considerable.
This image was perhaps drawn by or for a traveler well known from otherinscriptions, although it is not certain to which of the two stūpas the votive inscription
written between the two images relates24:/line 1/ devaddharmo yaṃ /2/ amṛtendrā[laṃkā]rasya“This is the pious gift of Atmṛtendrālaṃkāra.”Even if his name is partly destroyed, it can be read with confidence, because it is a rare
name and it occurs written by the same hand more than once. As we find inscriptions
with the name Amṛtendrālaṃkāra in more sites than that of any other traveller, it ispossible to trace the route followed by Amṛtendrālaṃkāra along the Upper Indus forabout 50 km from Shing Nala via Gichi Nala and Hodur ending up at Thor.
Among the travellers tracking along the Upper Indus were also threedharmabhāṇakas, “Reciters of the Law” whom we meet in two inscriptions found at thesite of Oshibat25. Interestingly, all three reciters emphasise the fact that they are
travellers:
I. /line 1/ vicarati dharmavāṇaka śūra /2/ carmavidakama+ /3/ vicarati dharmabhāṇaka
pāla (11:4)
II. vicarati guṇasena dharmabhāṇa[ka] (15:9)
I. “The Reciter of the Law, Śūra wanders about. Carmavidakama (??). The Reciter ofthe Law Pāla wanders about.” — II. “Guṇasena the Reciter of the Law wanders about.”
This matches the evidence found in the colophons of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra

manuscript “A” where two dharmabhāṇakas participated in the donation. Moreover,still another dharmabhāṇaka named Narendradatta copied the manuscript of the
Ajitasenavyākaraṇa also preserved in the Gilgit Library.
Consequently, the presence of at least five persons, two of them as Kalyāṇatrātaand Dharmendramti, both mentioned in the colophon of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra,and both being monks, are classified as dharmabhāṇanakas. It is certainly not bychance that dharmabhāṇakas are connected to the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, which
praises those who propagate the law not only in the tenth chapter, theDharmabhāṇakaparivarta. Thus this text can also be seen as a reassurance of thedharmabhāṇakas living and preaching perhaps under the strain of partly unfavourable
conditions when they reached out from Buddhist Gilgit to other remote areas in the
Karakorum. The author of the so-called Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra or better
Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra, might have had a similar situation in mind when he wrote
the following sentences quoted from the English summary added to his book by M.
Shimoda26: “The dharmakathikas (or dharmabhāṇakas) allow laymen to arm
themselves in order to protect the ācārya without accepting the five precepts. They
wander through dangerous areas and over mountains accompanied by lay people
including Caṇḍālas.” This almost reads like a description of a journey along the Indusand demonstrates, how inscriptions and literature shed light upon each other.
From another Gilgit manuscript we learn that the dharmabhāṇakas also sought
magical protection. For, there is a special Dhāraṇī in the Ratnaketuparivarta27, which
does not only protect dharmabhāṇakas against all sort of diseases, but in particularagainst ill health (dhātusaṃkṣobha) resulting from bad karma and leading to a
“disturbance of the articulation” (svarasaṃkṣobha) thus destroying their ability to recite
the teaching of the Buddha properly.
Of course bhāṇakas are mentioned frequently in Buddhist literature28. To quote
only one more example from Gilgit:
bhagavān āha. dharmabhāṇakaḥ sarvasūra tathāgatasamo jñātavyaḥ. sarvasūra āha.
katamo dharmabhāṇakaḥ. bhagavān āha. yaḥ saṃghāṭaṃ sūtraṃ śravayati sa
dharmabhāṇakaḥ, Saṃghāṭasutra § 4529
“The Lord said: ‘A reciter of the Law (dharmabhāṇaka), Sarvaśūra, must be regarded
like a Tathāgata.’
Sarvaśūra said: ‘Which reciter of the Law?’ The Lord said: ‘Who ever recites theSaṃghāṭasūtra.’”In the same way all sūtras, which mention dharmabhāṇakas praise the reciter of thatvery text, of course. Still the fact remains remarkable that two dharmabhāṇakas are
mentioned in the colophon of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra which devotes a wholechapter to the reciters of the Law and that three additional dharmabhāṇakas occur ininscriptions of the area.
All these observations around the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra manuscripts
demonstrate that this text was firmly embedded in the Buddhist culture of Gilgit during
the reign of the Palola Ṣāhis from the late sixth to the early eighth centuries. The literary
tradition of the text was cultivated by copying manuscripts of the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. As far it is possible to draw conclusions from the colophons,these manuscripts were used in worship. Furthermore, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
most likely served as a source of inspiration when the Palola ṢāhiNandivikramādityanandi conceived the unusual iconography of his bronze dedicated in
the year AD 714 a few days before the important date of the Viśākhapūjā, the full-moonof the month Viśākha, traditionally the date of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment andNirvāṇa. Lastly, two dharmabhāṇakas, Buddhist monks who propagated the Law
organized one of the extant Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra manuscripts to be copied for the
benefit and merit of a large group of laypeople with a widely varied ethnic background.
This shows the universal veneration of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra across manydifferent nationalities far beyond Gilgit.
Consequently, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra manuscripts recovered from theGilgit Library not only preserve for the first time, without being complete however,large parts of the text. For the presence of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra is, moreover,felt in many areas of Buddhist religion and Buddhist culture in ancient Gilgit. This is by
far more than any other find of manuscripts from ancient India can tell about theimmediate impact of the Lotus Sūtra.
Oskar von Hinüber
University of Freiburg i. Brsg.

Notes
1.

Gérard Fussman: Dans quel type de bâtiment furent trouvés les manuscrits de Gilgit? Journal
Asiatique 292. 2004, p. 101-150; Gregory Schopen: On the absence of Urtext and Otiose Ācāryas:
Books, Buildings, and Lay Buddhist Ritual at Gilgit, in: Gérard Colas et Gerdi Gerschheimer (Édd.):
Écrire et transmettre en Inde classique. (École française d’Extrême-Orient. Études thématiques 23)

Paris 2009 [rev.: Jean-Pierre Filliozat, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Comptes rendus
des séances de l’année 2009 [2011], p. 1754-1760; L. Rocher, Journal of the American Oriental
Society 131. 2011, p. 133-135; O.v. Hinüber, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen
Gesellschaft (in press)], p. 189-219. For more details see also O.v. Hinüber: The Gilgit Manuscripts.
An Ancient Buddhist Library in Modern Research: Introduction (in press). — Images from Gandhāra
showing the type of a building as reconstructed by G. Fussman can be seen in Isao Kurita: Gandharan
Art.Vol. I. Tokyo 22003, p. 260f. and in Giuseppe de Marco: The stūpa as a funerary monument.
New iconographic evidence. East and West New Series 37. 1987, p. 191-246, particularly p. 203 fig.
6 with p. 202 note 23: The image reproduced by de Marco was seen in the market at Karachi in 1974.
The present whereabouts of the piece seem to be unknown.
2.

Images showing the site at the time of the discovery of the Gilgit manuscripts can be found in Willy
Baruch: Beiträge zum Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. Leiden 1938, II. Beilage, 3 plates.

3.

Some texts are embedded in other texts, such as the Nāgakumāra-avadāna in the Pravrajyāvastu of
the Vinayavastu.

4.

Lokesh Chandra: Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts (Facsimile Edition). Śata-Piṭaka Series Vol. 10, 1-10.
Delhi 1959-1974 (abbreviated here as “FE”), reprinted in three parts as: Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts,
revised and enlarged compact facsimile edition. Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series 150, 151, 152.
Delhi 1995.

5.

The new facsimile edition planned by the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology
at Soka University giving for the first time the measurements of each folio, could also be very helpful
for reassembling the manuscripts in their original form.

6.

The numbers refer to The Gilgit Manuscripts, as note 1, where the numbers introduced by the
National Archives and used in the Facsimile Edition are kept, but partly split up into sub-numbers,
where ever this seemed useful and appropriate. This —hopefully— helps to avoid confusion,
although the original numbering is neither adequate nor very practical.

7.

This book was reviewed by H. Bechert: Journal of Religious Studies (Patiala) 11. 1983, p. 118-120;
G. Fussman, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 73. 1984, p. 384 foll.; H. - O. Feistel,Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 134. 1984, p. 387; P. Williams, Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society 1984, p. 156 foll.; D. Seyfort-Ruegg, Journal of the American Oriental
Society 106. 1986, p. 879; H. Eimer, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 81. 1986, columns 393 foll.

8.

The Gilgit Manuscript of the Śayanāsanavastu and the Adhikaraṇavastu edited by Raniero Gnoli.
Serie Orientale Roma L. Rome 1978, p. 36, 6-8.

9.

For details cf. O.v. Hinüber: Aus der Welt der Kolophone von Gilgit bis Lān2 Nā (to appear in “On
Colophons” [Conference organized by the research group “Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa”
in Hamburg from 3rd to 5th December 2009].

10. O.v. Hinüber: Die Palola Ṣāhis. Ihre Steininschriften, Inschriften auf Bronzen,

Handschriftenkolophone und Schutzzauber. (Antiquities of Northern Pakistan 5). Mainz 2004 [rev.:
Adam Nayyar, Journal of Asian Studies 65. 2006, p. 453 foll.; R. Salomon, Bulletin of the Asia
Institute 17. 2003, p. 183-185; Harry Falk, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 100. 2005, columns
696-698; Gérard Fussman, Journal Asiatique 293. 2005, p. 734-742; R. Schmitt, Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 157. 2007, p. 500-502; Alberto M. Cacopardo, East andWest New Series 58. 2008, p. 475-477] with supplements: Three New Bronzes from Gilgit. Annual
Report of the International Research Institute of Advanced Buddhology (at Soka University) 10.
2007, p. 39-43; More Gilgit Bronzes and Some Additions to “Die Palola Ṣāhis.” ibidem 12. 2009, p.
3-6; An Inscribed Incense Burner from the MacLean Collection in Chicago, ibidem 13. 2010, p. 3-88
and Four Donations Made by Maṅgalahaṃsikā, Queen of Palola (Gilgit), ibidem 14. 2011, p. 3-6.
11. In spite of the fact that the scribe wrote °sigha throughout there can be little doubt that °siṅgha ismeant, which occurs very frequently elsewhere in names in inscriptions along the Upper Indus.
12. O.v. Hinüber: Die Kolophone der Gilgit-Handschriften. StII 5/6. 1980, p. 49-83 = Kleine Schriften.
Wiesbaden 2009, p. 688-721, particularly p.66-69 on IX Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, cf. also the index
to this article under the individual names.
13. For Parthian pwhr, cf. Rüdiger Schmitt: Die mitteliranischen Sprachen im Überblick, in: Rüdiger
Schmitt (Ed): Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden 1989, p. 99, and for Bactrian pooraor poura, i.e. puhra, cf. Ivan Michajlovitch Steblin-Kamensakij: Baktrijskij jazyk, in: Vera Segeevna
Rastorgueva (Ed.): Osnovy iranskogo jazykoznanija. Sredneiranskie jazyki. Moscow 1981, p. 338.
— The reading pukhrena follows Sylvain Lévi, who recognized the Iranian word pukhra, which wasmost likely not represented by hra in Indian script, because Indian h is voiced in contrast to thevoiceless h in Parthian: Werner Sundermann: Parthisch, in: Compendium, as above, p. 122. The rareakṣara interpreted as khra does not normally occur in Indian languages.
14. Perhaps it might be assumed, if the reading krayādhara is correct, that krayādhara either stands for*kṛyādhara = kriyādhara (for ṛ : ra cf. pṛhṛṣṭo : prahṛṣṭo, Sanskrithandschriften aus den
Turfanfunden Teil IV. Wiesbaden 1980, p. 237, K 466, b Blatt 12 R 2), or it is a writing mistake for*kriyādhara. However, *kriyādhara “practitioner (??)” or “decision maker (??)” is not attested
otherwise.
15. In no. 7 lera-nihela-pati seems to be a title rather than a name; on Khotanese nihela-pati cf. Ronald
Eric Emmerick: Two Indian loanwords in Khotanese., in: Studien zum Jainismus und Buddhismus.
Gedenkschrift für Ludwig Alsdorf. Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien 23. Wiesbaden 1981, pp. 79-82,
particularly p. 81, where the meanwhile outdated reading nihela-mati is repeated.
16. I am obliged to Prof. Dr. Seishi Karashima and Dr. Noriyuki Kudo for granting access to these as yet
unpublished materials.
17. Cf. Die Palola Ṣāhis, as above note 10, p. 141 with note 181.
18. Ditte König, Gérard Fussman (Edd.): Die Felsbildstation Shatial. Materialien zur Archäologie vonNord-Pakistan 2. Mainz 1997.
19. In contrast to the Saṃghāṭasūtra, which was translated into Khotanese Saka, there is only a single
line of the text of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra preserved in Khotanese translation in the Book ofZambasta VI 3 and a brief metrical summary of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra in Khotanese, cf.
Mauro Maggi: Khotanese Literature, in: The Literature of Pre-Islamic Iran. Companion Volume I to
A History of Persian Literature ed. by Ronald Eric Emmerick and Maria Macuch. A History of
Persian Literature Volume XVII. London 2009, p. 375.
20. This thesis was printed in Enschede (Holland) in 1986 as a “Proefschrift” (thesis), see p. 204-209.
21. The inscription on this bronze is edited and discussed in “Die Palola Ṣāhis,” as note 10, no. 14, p. 38
foll.
22. There are also quite different and contradictory interpretations of this bronze, first as the Paola Ṣāhi“as an initiate under the guidance of the great master Mañjuśri” “exploiting Sudhana’s model” (??)
by Anna Filigenzi: The Dāna, the Pātra and the Cakravartin-ship: Archaeological and Art Historical
Evidence for a Social History of Early Medieval Buddhism, in: Claudine Bautze-Picron (Ed.):
Miscellanies about the Buddha Image. South Asian Archaeology 2007. Special Sessions 1. BAR
International Series 1888. Oxford 2008, p. 11-24, particularly p. 21, and again very recently without
referring to neither P.G. Paul nor to A. Filigenzi by Rebecca L. Twist: The Patola Shahi Dynasty. A
Buddhological Study of their Patronage, Devotion and Politics. Saarbrücken 2011, p. 146 foll. with
figure A.1, who tries —very wisely hesitatingly— to establish this image as a representation of
Vairocana /Mañjuśrī (whatever that is), without, however, even mentioning the gesture of the righthand of the Buddha or being able to interpret the image as a whole limiting herself to erratic andmostly extremely vague connections of iconographical details to representations of both, Vairocananand Mañjuśrī, which is rather unhelpful. Moreover, attention should be paid to the simple fact thatthe name Vairocana is conspicuous by absence among the (quite a few) names of Buddhas found in
the inscriptions along the Uper Indus.
23. The drawing was published in the catalogue “Gandhāra. Das buddhistische Erbe Pakistans. Legenden,
Klöster und Paradiese. 21. Novermber 2008 bis 15. März 2009 in der Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle
der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn”, p. 353, cf . 357a. I am obliged to Prof. Dr. Harald
Hauptmann, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, for the permission to publish this image.
24. Above this inscription there are some clumsily written akṣaras probably signifying nothing. Thereseem to be two characters below the devaddharma line dhi + of uncertain meaning. —By the side of
the second stūpa there is one line in small akṣaras reading sārddhaṃ yaśa(bhaḍa)sya “together with
Yaśa[” and in large characters candrasenasya “of Candrasena” and again below this namecandrasenavihāre. The last three characters are clearly readable once the image is enlarged.— The
wording “together with Yaśa[” seems to indicate that Yaśa[ might be the donor or participated in the
donation of the smaller stūpa, which is most likely later than the Prabhūtaratna scene given the way

in which the available space on the rock is used. The relation of the name Candrasena to the stūpas is
as obscure as the meaning of “in the Candrasena Monastery.” Perhaps Candrasena was a traveller
who visited the site and wrote down his name after the two stūpas were drawn.
25. Martin Bemmann und Ditte König (Edd.): Die Felsbildstation Oshibat. Materialien zur Archäologie
von Nord-Pakistan 1. Mainz 1994.
26. Masahiro Shimoda: A Study of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra with a Focus on Methodology of the Studyof Mahāyānasūtras. Tokyo 1997, p. 15. The Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra actually uses the word
dharmakathika, cf. Seishi Karashima and Klaus Wille: The British Library Sanskrit Fragments.
Buddhist Manuscripts from Central Asia. Vol. II.1 Texts, Tokyo 2009, p. 554: [bha]yārditānāṃ
dharmakathi<kathi>kānām dharmanaitrī[ …]/line 2/ ... ] kāntare vā aṭavīkāntāre vānadīkāntāre[ ... .
27. dharmabhāṇakarakṣāyai, Ratnaketuparivarta ed. by Yenshu Kurumiya. Kyoto 1978, p. 137, 2* “forthe protection of dharmabhāṇakas.”
28. On dharmabhāṇakas see Graeme MacQueen: Inspired Speech in Early Mahāyāna Buddhism II.
Religion 12. 1982, p. 49-65, particularly p. 53 foll.; Keisho Tsukamoto: Source Elements of the
Lotus Sūtra, Buddhist Integration of Religion, Thought, and Culture. Tokyo 2007, p. 179 foll. forreferences also from inscriptions and Davis Drewes: Dharmabhāṇakas in Early Mahāyāna.
Indo-Iranian Journal 54. 2011, 331-372. — Richard Nance: The dharmabhāṇaka inside and outside
the sūtras. Religion Compass 2. 2008, p. 134-159 is not accessible to me. In later texts such as the
Nepalese version of the Kāraṇḍavyūha, the dharmabhāṇaka is also seen as a tantric yogī, cf.
Adelheid Mette, Indo-Iranian Journal 47. 2004, p. 325 note 11; for evidence from Khotan cf. O.v.
Hinüber, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 157. 2007, p. 390 note 14.
29. Giotto Canevascini: The Khotanese Saṅghāṭasūtra. A critical edition. Beiträge zur Iranistik Band 14.
Wiesbaden 1993.