New Fragment of Sanskrit Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra from Khotan

Abstract

Introduction. The collection of Sanskrit manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra is a richest one in the Serindian Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (RAS, 27 call numbers). Most of the fragments of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra from the Serindian Collection belong to the Central Asian edition, including the famous Kashgar manuscript by N. F. Petrovsky that is the most extensive version of the Sutra (about 400 folios) and the core of the Sanskrit manuscripts containing the text of ‘Saddharmapuṇḍarīka’. Most of the Sanskrit manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra in the Serindian Collection were compiled in the southern oases of the Tarim Basin and made in poṭhī format. The texts of these manuscripts were written in Southern Turkestan Brāhmī in black ink on paper. According to paleographic data, these manuscripts can be dated to the 8th–9th centuries AD. Goals. The article seeks to introduce into academic circulation a new fragment of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra from the Serindian Collection of the IOM (RAS). The new unpublished fragment of the Lotus Sutra stored under call number SI 6584 has been identified relatively recently. It is an excerpt from Chapter XVIII of the Lotus Sutra (‘The Chapter Describing the Religious Merit [Obtained through] Joyful Participation [in Dharma]’, ‘Anumodanāpuṇyanirdeśaparivartaḥ’). According to paleographic and codicological characteristics, the new fragment is very close to another previously published manuscript of the Lotus Sutra stored in the Serindian Collection under call number SI 1934. The article describes the external features of both manuscripts (SI 1934 and SI 6584), transliterates, translates and compares fragment SI 6584 to the other well-known texts of the Lotus Sutra. The paper also contains a facsimile reproduction of fragment SI 6584. Conclusions. As compared to other texts of the Lotus Sutra, fragment SI 6584 belongs to the Central Asian edition of ‘Saddharmapuṇḍarīka’, and its text is almost identical to that of the Kashgar manuscript by N. F. Petrovsky (fol. 335b–337a).