Commentaries and authorship in the philosophical literature of India: a case study based on the collected writings of the Buddhist scholar Sthiramati (6th c. AD)

我们现在对文学或学术作品的作者身份的概念是与作者的个性、创造力和作品的独特性分不开的。它假定知识产权归作者本人所有。拟议的研究将围绕这样一个问题：是否有可能将现代西方对独特作者身份的理解应用于印度不同体裁和不同时期的文学作品，当代学术界通常将这些作品归因于单一作者。在我的作品中，我的目的是考察古典印度佛教文本创作的文学方法，特别是参考印度学者西提拉玛蒂(公元6世纪)的著作集，从而批判性地分析作者的角色。在印度用梵文创作的大部分作品都是注释，西拉玛蒂也认为他的作品是对早期佛教经文的详细阐述。我主要关注的是印度作家作为评论员所扮演的角色。特别是，我的研究将解决有关佛教解说词的作用的问题，例如：它们是为什么样的受众撰写的？有没有可能挑出不同评论类型之间的明显差异？解说员们有没有遵守佛教手册中所规定的训诫原则？由于Sthiramati在佛教瑜伽卡拉传统的全盛时期活跃，拟议的项目还将导致出版关于这一流派在6世纪印度的哲学概念的出版物。

Our present concept of authorship of literary or academic works is inseparable from the author's individuality, his creativity and the uniqueness of his oeuvre. It assumes the possession of the intellectual property rights by the author himself. The proposed study will centre around the question of whether it is possible to apply the modern western understanding of a unique authorship to literary works of various genres and periods from India, which are commonly ascribed to single authors by contemporary scholarship. In my work I am aiming at examining the literary methods of Buddhist text composition in classical India with special reference to the collected writings of the Indian scholar Sthiramati (6th c. AD), thereby critically analysing the role of the author. The majority of works composed in India in Sanskrit are commentaries, and Sthiramati, too, considered his writings as elaborations of earlier Buddhist texts. It will be my main concern to examine the role of Indian authors in their capacity as commentators. In particular, my study will address questions on the role of Buddhist commentaries, such as: For what kind of audiences were they written? Is it possible to single out discernable differences among the different commentarial types? Did the commentators adhere to the principles of exegesis laid down in Buddhist manuals? Since Sthiramati was active during the heyday of the Buddhist Yogacara tradition, the proposed project will also result in publications on philosophical concepts of this school in 6th-century India.