The oldest Buddhist texts ever discovered

Richard Salomon (amazon.com); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A set of 29 scrolls recently acquired by the British Library promise to provide a window into a crucial phase of the history of Buddhism in pre-India (Scythia, Saka, Central Asia, IVC) just as the Dead Sea scrolls changed our understanding of Judaism and early Christianity.

The fragmentary birch bark scrolls, which were found inside one of a set of inscribed clay pots, are written in the Gandhari Prakrit (Pali-Sanskrit) language and in Kharosthi script.

Dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, the scrolls are probably the oldest Buddhist manuscripts ever discovered.

The manuscripts and pots come from a region known in ancient times as Gandhara, corresponding to modern northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan (a part of India until 1948).

At the peak of its influence, Gandhara was the capital of a series of wealthy and powerful dynasties and became one of the world’s most important centers of Buddhism and the gateway through which Buddhism was transmitted from India to China and other parts of Asia.

• The Gandhāran Buddhist texts are the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, dating from about the 1st century CE (UW Press: Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara). They are also the oldest Indian manuscripts (Richard Salomon, The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhāra: An Introduction with Selected Translations, p. 1, referring to works written on paper, tree bark, and palm leaves. For there are older inscriptions carved in stone). They represent the literature of Gandharan Buddhism from present-day Northwestern Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan and are written in Gāndhārī. They were sold to European and Japanese institutions and individuals, and they are currently being recovered and studied by several universities. Gandhara was also a principal point of contact between India and the Western world. Despite abundant archeological evidence of Gandhara’s thriving culture, until now there has been virtually no documentary evidence of its literary and religious canon.

Gandhara's Greco-Buddhist art, Indo-Pakistan, 3rd cent.

This book introduces a groundbreaking project to decipher and interpret the Gandhäran texts. It provides a detailed description of the manuscripts and a survey of their contents, along with a preliminary evaluation of their significance. Also included are representative samples of texts and translations.

This discovery sheds new light on the regional character of early Indian Buddhist traditions, the process of the formation of standardized written canons (such as Pali/Magadhi), and the transmission of Buddhism into Central and East Asia.

Ancient Buddhist scrolls from Gandhara will appeal to a broad audience with interests in Buddhism, comparative religion, and Asian languages. More

• Review: Like a Buddha statue coated in old chewing gum This is a translation of the oldest Buddhist writings ever found, which are very damaged. Translations are ongoing with texts scattered across various private collections in Europe and Japan. They are recovering the oldest known teachings of the Buddha in a collaborative work of professors who must justify their translations.
• More info: The Early Buddhist Manuscript Project
• A maverick history of early Buddhism (Ranajit Pal)