FOREWORD

Lokesh Chandra

Ever since their discovery from a stupa in 1931, the Gilgit manuscripts have awaited for a thousand full moons to find a dedicatedpersonality of the wisdom and stature of Soka Gakkai International(SGI) President Daisaku Ikeda to be reproduced with all their patina ofcenturies and in all the natural charm of the birch-bark on which they
are written. These manuscripts are the offspring of untrammelledinspiration, luminous calligraphy, and lively symbols of the piety ofroyal patrons. They were edification of life in the stillness of the written
logos, commissioned as pious works to bring merit to both the donorand the scribe. As acts of worship, they made the beauty of the mind andthe dynamics of action in the world of experience a radiantmanifestation.
The Lotus Sutra celebrates the vision that springs from within, andone of the Gilgit manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra has been dedicated toall beings to attain supreme knowledge and merit, i.e., to fulfill the twosambhåras (jñåna-sambhåra and puˆya-sambhåra). The names of thedonors are both in Sanskrit and in Central Asian languages. Some names
end in pharna which is the Avesta hvareno or Persian farnah, theindwelling light from which issues a radiance so brilliant as to dazzle
humans. Farnah refers to “royal glory” and the Gilgit manuscripts are
the glowing splendor of Buddhist sutras.
These codices of the Lotus Sutra are the depth of the inner space thatmakes us pilgrim beings in the majestic syllables of time. President
Daisaku Ikeda gives a new life to them and enriches the academic quest
with an important source for comprehending the dynamic flow of thetext of the Sutra. This de luxe facsimile edition will invite inquisitiveminds to study the psycho-active sub-texts and to find the lost links inthe development of ideas. It will echo a toiling, thinking mind in thesilence of words.
These manuscripts were written during the Pa†ola ›åhi dynasty ofGilgit. The names of the kings of this dynasty are mentioned in thecolophons; e.g., Surendra-vikramåditya-nandi in the colophon of46

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Ratnaketu-parivarta. His father Vikramåditya-nandi and his mother
Surendramålå are also named along with him. On the basis of the HatËnand Danyor inscriptions, T’ang Annals, bronze statue no. 31, colophonsof the Gilgit manuscripts and palaeography, Oskar von Hinüber hasdrawn up a list of the Pa†ola ›åhi kings of Gilgit before 630, after 630,
and after 725. The T’ang Annals speak of the King of Gilgit who sent
embassies to the Chinese Court in 696 and 713. He must have been
Nandi-vikramåditya-nandi, the donor of bronze no. 31. The T’ang court
recognized Su-fu-shê-li-chih-li-ni 蘇弗舎利支離泥 in 717. The last kingrecognized by the T’ang Court, Surendråditya, ruled between 720 and725. The Danyor inscription of King Jaya-ma∫gala-vikramåditya-nandi
has been dated to 730.
These manuscripts were commissioned for the stabilization of thedynasty. The MahåmåyËr¥ and mantras written on small scrolls of birchbark are dedicated to protect King Ír¥ Navasurendra. Hinüber dates theSa◊ghå†a-sËtra to 627/8 on palaeographic grounds. The Gilgit
manuscripts can be dated to the seventh century in general (Oskar vonHinüber, The Pa†ola ›åh¥s of Gilgit—A Forgotten Dynasty, typescriptwith L. Chandra).
The Gilgit manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra have been classified intothree groups by Shōkō Watanabe: groups A, B, C. They can be detailed
as follows:
Group A: 8 lines per folio
National Archives, serial no. 45
RV/LC
nos. 2813-3052
Watanabe 1. 1-173 (facsimiles)		
2. pp. 3-178 (romanized text)		3.	351-355 (facsimiles, epilogue giving names ofdonors)		
4. pp. 293-294 (romanized text, epilogue)
Group B: mostly 9 lines per folio
National Archives, serial nos. 44, 47, 49, etc.
RV/LC
nos. 3217-3220
Watanabe 1. 247-350 (facsimiles, mostly 9 lines, but including
8, 10, 11 lines per folio)		
2. pp. 181-292 (romanized text)Toda
p. 249, N.B.: “right parts of 2785-86 and 2801-02”		
pp. 300-303 (10 lines per folio)		
pp. 303-304 (Bapat, 10 lines)

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forewordGroup B has mostly 9 lines per folio, so the folios and fragmentswith 10 lines can represent another group.
Group C: 11 lines per folio(i) British Library Lévi in JA. 220
Watanabe 1. Ia-VIIb (facsimiles)		
2. 297-307 (romanized text)
KN
251-257, 272-275, 436-439, 443-445, 481-487(ii) RV/LC nos. 3121-3216 (48 folios)		 Todapp. 249-300
KN		
28-32, 46-49, 51-53, 55-57, 59-61, 63-70, 71-85, 87,88, 90, 91, 93, 192, 233-235, 237, 243-244, 280,282-284, 286-292, 294-297, 304-317, 321-323,331-337, 342-348, 352-355, 358-365, 373-376,378-382
Group K: 8 lines per folio (can belong to Group A)
Sir Pratap Singh Museum, Srinagar
Edited by Oskar von Hinüber, A New Fragmentary manuscriptof the Saddharmapuˆ∂ar¥kasËtra, Tokyo 1982

The Gilgit manuscripts can be arranged according to the number of lines
per folio, after taking into account the ductus of writing and otherfactors. While nos. 44 and 49 with 10 lines can belong to group B which
has the same number of lines, no. 47 may constitute a new group D with9 lines.
The facsimiles in Raghu Vira/Lokesh Chandra’s Gilgit Buddhist
Manuscripts, parts 9 and 10 can be arranged as follows:
2813-3052		 8 lines
3053-3120*		 9 lines
2785-2812		 10 lines
3217-3220		 10 lines
3121-3216		 11 lines

Archives no. 45	
Archives no. 47
Archives no. 44
Archives no. 49
Archives no. 48

Group AGroup B
Group B (?)
Group B
Group CThe manuscripts will have to be transcribed to get a correct picture ofthe text. The romanized text of Watanabe does not reflect the Gilgit
readings and is misleading for any textual criticism. The diplomatictranscription of Hirofumi Toda of 48 folios of Group C (RV/LC nos.
3121-3216) provides a model for the precise transliteration of the extant
portions.

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The Gilgit manuscripts have preserved more ancient readings than theNepalese vulgate. Some readings of the Group C manuscript are citedfrom the transcription of Toda:
RV/LC. 3121
abhËvan		kaußalyu (gåthå form)
vyutti∑†hata		heto˙ bahu-buddha-ßata-saha				
RV/LC 3122
ßaradvat¥putra

KN 28.2-29.5
babhËvakaußalya (classical form)
vyutthito
heto˙/bahu-buddha-ko†¥-nayuta-ßatasahasra(ko†¥-nayuta is a later addition)
KN 29.6-30.10
ßåriputra

The aforesaid clearly shows that the readings in the Gilgit manuscripts
preserve gåthå forms, lower numbers which have been enhanced later
like the addition of ko†¥-nayuta, the use of the original form Íara­dvat¥putra instead of Íåriputra in KN, and so on. A critical edition withmeticulous recording of variant readings is an urgent need to follow thetextual vicissitudes of the Sutra.
The Gilgit manuscripts were deposited within the vault of the third of
the four stupas. The third stupa had a double basement: the lower
measured 22 × 22 feet, with the upper receding 2 feet on all four sides.
In the center of the chamber there were five wooden boxes, the fifth wasemboxed within the other four and the manuscripts were deposited in it.
Some colophons name royal personages as donors. This act of piety isin accord with the 28th chapter of the Lotus Sutra where Samantabhadra
says: “[those] who seek out, accept, uphold, read, recite and transcribe
this Lotus Sutra . . . should do so diligently and with a single mind. . . .
And because he has acquired these spells, no nonhuman being will beable to injure him. . . . I too will personally guard him at all times. . . . Ifthey do no more than copy the Sutra, when their lives come to an end
they will be reborn in the Trayastri◊ßa heaven.” (The Lotus Sutra,translated by Burton Watson pp. 321-322): Samantabhadra goes on toexhort devotees to copy the Sutra themselves, recite it, and to guard it in
all ways, as he employs his transcendental powers to protect this Sutra.
The Lotus Sutra from the Gilgit stupa is the adamantine essence oflogos, the transcendence of Bodhi in the words of the Guhyasamåja(Bodhi-nairåtmya◊ våkya-vajra-samåvaha◊).
The Great Teacher, Daisensei President Daisaku Ikeda, brings to us
this second most ancient codex of the Lotus Sutra, to bless our daily

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foreword

lives with the eyes of the spirit, to enliven our daily toils with the nobil­
ity of Dharma. This facsimile edition is a drop from the heavenly heartof the Daisensei. In the words of Pråjña 般若 in his ZØtØemmyØ­kudokukyØ 造塔延命功德經 (TaishØ 1026), compassion for all beings isthe guiding principle, and the thought of obtaining Bodhi is the base ofpractical and ethical activity. In the midst of centuries lives this birchbark Lotus Sutra to spread its glow once again by the perfection of Japa­
nese technology, merging in the endless solemnity of life. It greets us
with expressions that are more ancient than the vulgate version as they
implant in us the essence of a throbbing new.
President Ikeda is the culmination of the trinity of the Lotus Sutra, histwo predecessors being Kumåraj¥va and Nichiren Daishonin. Heimpresses our times with its novelty and freshness. Like a landscapepainter who uses a large canvas but fine brushes, filling the canvas withgentle and well-defined strokes that result in a nuanced and multiplelayered picture, he gives a subtle but clear analysis of the Sutra as theastonishing catalyst of life in the reflexivity of ideas. His vast oeuvre
gives us the meaning of the Sutra as action in the simplest of chores aswell as the fusion of horizons. He endows us with vivid perception in
objective standards and makes the lives of millions a gratifying
experience of joy. The Sutra too has had a dynamic blossoming in thelong transmission of its text, as shown by the codices from Kashgar(better Khotan) and Gilgit. This crystalline reproduction of the Gilgit
manuscripts of the Sutra makes us realize the grandeur of human
involvement, so that we become “protagonists of a ‘story’ of inner
victory forged in the depth of [our] lives”,† in the words of Daisensei
Ikeda in his Peace Proposals of 2010. The Sutra is awareness, theDaisensei is the dynamic enlightenment of life, and we are the fields ofaction. Here are the wondrous birch-bark folios sparkling like jewels of
the human mind.

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References
Hinüber 1982: Oskar von Hinüber, A New Fragmentary Manuscript of the Saddharmapun,dar¥kasËtra, Tokyo, The Reiyukai.
KN:
H. Kern and Bunyiu Nanjio, Saddharmapun, dar¥ka, Bibliotheca
Buddhica X, 1908-1912.
Lévi:
Sylvain Lévi, Journal Asiatique 1932: 14f.
RV/LC:
Raghu Vira and Lokesh Chandra, Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts (facsimile edition), New Delhi, International Academy of Indian Culture,
Part 9 (2326-2908), Part 10 (2909-3368).
Toda 1979:
Hirofumi Toda, Saddharmapun,dar¥ka Gilgit Manuscripts (Group B andC), Tokushima Daigaku KyØyØbu KiyØ, vol. 14. Group B: RV/LC 31213216, Group C: RV/LC 3217-3220, Bapat 171ab (ABORI. 1950: 30.3-4
pl. III).
Watanabe:ShØkØ Watanabe, Saddharmapun,dar¥ka Manuscripts Found in Gilgit,
Parts 1, 2, Tokyo, The Reiyukai, 1972, 1975.
Watson:		Burton Watson, The Lotus Sutra, New York, Columbia University Press,
1993.
*Editor’s note: There is a high probability that 3119-3120 may be the colophon toGroup A, but this is kept intact for the time being. For details, see p. xlv.
†http://www.sgiquarterly.org/buddhism2010Apr-1.html