Investigating the Buddhist Manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Hirayama Ikuo Collection

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The aim of the present study was to investigate Buddhist manuscripts that were first discovered during the 1990s largely in the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan, and in the Gilgit region, Pakistan. These caches of manuscripts had been subsequently divided into various private collections. Among the overseas collectors are the well known Schoyen Collection of Norway, and the Adams Collection of the United States of America, and among the domestic collectors is that of the noted painter Hirayama Ikuo. Focusing on the Hirayama Ikuo Collection, we conducted further extensive research on the numerous documents among the ancient manuscripts written in Sanskrit and Ghandhari, and in cooperation with joint researchers overseas, we compared them with the related materials in other holdings such as the Schoyen Collection, and planned to publish the results of our analytical studies. One of the most valuable materials among the documents in the Hirayama Ikuo Collection are the birch bark texts of the Dirgha-agama written in Sanskrit and belonging to the Sarvastivadin Buddhist order that were discovered in the Gilgit region of Pakistan. We were able to determine that this document originally consisted of 453 folios, of which the Hirayama Ikuo Collection contains 53. During the course of the four years of research, in which period the deciphering of the Dirgha-agama consumed much of our time, we were able to successfully complete the rigorous text critical reading and detailed annotation required of the multiple textual sources that were contained in these 53 folios. Furthermore, we also undertook the text critical investigation of these documents in relation to the other documents in the Hirayama Ikuo Collection and were able to clarify the total picture of this collection. With regard to our detailed research findings, these results will be published in a volume of academic reports on the theme.