A Sanskrit Manuscript in Proto-Śāradā Script: Fragments of Āryaśūra’s Jātakamālā

Abstract

The article continues a series of publications of Sanskrit manuscript fragments written in the Proto-Śāradā script and kept in the Serindia Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IOM, RAS). This article contains passages of stories from the “Garland of Jātakas” (Jātakamālā) by Āryaśūra. The article argues that the fragment from the Serindia Collection of the IOM, RAS belongs to the same manuscript as folios from the Turfan Collection (Berlin, Germany) and the Lüshun Museum (Dalian, PRC). All these scattered folios, which appear in different collections, used to be parts of one and the same manuscript of Āryaśūra’s Jātakamālā. The Sanskrit fragment of the Mahābodhi-jātaka from the Serindia Collection of the IOM, RAS, analyzed in this article, is a passage from a dispute between a Bodhisattva and various Indian teachers, in which the Buddhist ascetic refutes the arguments of his opponents.