Fragments of texts from the disciplinary code of the Buddhist order in the "Private Collection in Virginia"

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A private collection in Virginia (USA) contains singular manuscript fragments from the Vinaya-vibhanga and the Vinaya-uttaragrantha. Both texts belong to the disciplinary code of the Buddhist monks in the canonical version of the (Mula)sarvastivadins. The Indian originals of these works were considered lost. Since the owner of the collection attaches highest importance to his anonymity, the manuscripts seemed to remain inaccessible. When a helpful circumstance unexpectedly provided access, the fragments could be digitalized in very high resolution. The project intends to provide for the first time an edition and a philological analysis of the fragments by comparing the Chinese and Tibetan translations and other parallel texts which are preserved in Sanskrit. It will investigate the content and the language of the fragments, but also questions of the development and variation of the Vinaya texts within the (Mula)sarvastivada school. The new Sanskrit fragments will enrich our knowledge of vocabulary, diction and syntax of the canonical texts of this school. They were acquired together with a large part of the manuscript of the Dirghagama, and thus there is reason to assume that all these manuscripts come from the same find spot and possibly even belonged to the same owners. Therefore the edition and study of the Vinaya fragments will be carried out in close collaboration with those researchers who deal with the Dirghagama manuscript, not least because the Dirghagama includes passages parallel to those of the Vinaya texts.