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The Sanskrit Auxiliary sthā- ‘stand’, with a Note on Avestan stā- Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Beatrice Grieco
Traditional grammars of Sanskrit briefly address the periphrastic use of the verbs i- ‘go’, car- ‘move’, ās- ‘sit’ and sthā- ‘stand’ plus participle or gerund, which convey the meaning ‘to be continually/habitually x’ (x = participle or gerund), but an in-depth analysis of this set of auxiliaries remains a desideratum. This paper specifically addresses the periphrasis formed with the posture verb sthā-
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Transmitting Awareness (saṅkrānti) Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-06 James D. Reich, Ben Williams
On the basis of a parallel passage in Abhinavagupta’s commentaries on the Nāṭyaśāstra and the Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā, this article considers the ways in which Abhinavagupta theorized “transmission” (saṅkrānti) in his descriptions of aesthetic experience and the reception of knowledge in non-dual Śaiva philosophy. We argue that this notion of transmission, in which the lines between author and qualified
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The Moment the Mahāvīra Attained Omniscience Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Herman Tieken
In the accounts of the Mahāvīra’s life in the first suyakkhaṃdha of the Āyāra(ṃga) and the Jinacaritra several turning points are mentioned. As will be shown, the periods between these turning points are delimited in a highly exact way, which accounts for the intercalary months. However, the modern translators have failed to recognize the terms involved. And so have the authors of the texts themselves
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A New Reading of the Bactrian Part of the Dašt-i Nāwur Trilingual (DN I) Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-12-14 Jakob Halfmann, Svenja Bonmann, Simon Fries, Natalie Korobzow
The trilingual Kushan royal inscription of Dašt-i Nāwur has been the subject of scholarly controversies since the time of its first scientific publication (Fussman 1974), with different authors defending opposing views and mutually incompatible readings, in particular of the Bactrian part of the inscription (e.g. Davary & Humbach 1976; Sims-Williams & Cribb 1996; Fussman 1998). Progress in the understanding
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Remarks on a Recent Study of the Śrīmālādevīsiṁhanādanirdeśasūtra Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-12-14 Jonathan A. Silk
The Śrīmālādevīsiṁhanādanirdeśasūtra is preserved in toto in one Tibetan and two Chinese translations, in addition to which we have access to a fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript and a considerable number of Sanskrit quotations, contributing to a sizable amount of the text now being available in Sanskrit. The present contribution takes as its impetus a recent contribution on the sūtra and its ideas about
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Bookkeeping in the Arthaśāstra Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-10-15 Harald Wiese
This paper focuses on the Arthaśāstra’s portion II.6.1-II.7.3. The official with the title samāhartṛ is responsible not only for bookkeeping, but also for inflow organization, coin in- and outflow management, supervision, and controlling. Many of the bookkeeping terms remain elusive, but some progress can be made with respect to umbrella terms, such as āyamukha, samudaya, and siddha. Among other assertions
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Revisiting the Bactrian and Gāndhārī Bilingual Inscriptions from Dasht-e Nāwūr Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-10-15 Filip Palunčić, Daniella Palunčić, B.T. Maharaj
The historically important Kushan trilingual inscriptions of Dasht-e Nāwūr are revisited. The readings and interpretations of the bilingual DN I (Bactrian)—DN IV (Gāndhārī) are presented. Through careful analysis of the photos, paper rubbings and latex moulds of DN I published by Gérard Fussman in 1974, a reading of lines 7–13 is proposed which shows further significant parallels with known Kushan-period
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Bhāviveka and Avalokitavrata on the Two So-Called Non-cause Theories (ahetuvāda) of the Lokāyatikas Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-10-05 Krishna Del Toso
The article discusses Bhāviveka’s Prajñāpradīpavṛtti and Avalokitavrata’s Prajñāpradīpaṭīkā commentaries on the “not without a cause” (nāpy ahetutaḥ) alternative of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 1.1ab, from which it emerges that at least two distinct theories of causality can be attributed to the Lokāyata school. The first one is a physicalist theory that confines all causal relations within the
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The Ascetics of Mount Aṭṭhāvaya Become Jain Monks Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Paul Dundas, Peter C. Bisschop
This study presents a detailed analysis of the narrative of Goyama and the ascetics of Mount Aṭṭhāvaya in the Āvaśyaka Cūrṇi, including text and translation. By identifying a range of themes, intertexts and allusions in the narrative, a variety of Jain perspectives on the nature of asceticism are uncovered. Topics covered include the Āvaśyaka Cūrṇi as “commentary”, the Āvaśyaka Niryukti background
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The Adhālaka-Mahācetiya at Kanaganahalli as a Political Monument Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Oskar von Hinüber
The discovery of the Adhālaka-Mahācetiya, whose name survives in various inscriptions from the site, is among the major archaeological finds in India during the 20th century. Numerous excellently preserved images and inscriptions have substantially broadened the knowledge of Buddhist art, and, perhaps more important, allow certain conclusions on the relationship of the Buddhist Saṃgha and the ruling
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Metrical passages in the Khotanese Saṃghāṭa-sūtra Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Nicholas Sims-Williams
The Buddhist Sanskrit Saṃghāṭa-sūtra includes several longer or shorter passages in verse, mostly ślokas. Many though not all of these verse passages also appear in metrical form in the Khotanese version, which makes use of all three of the metres known from the longest Old Khotanese poem, the Book of Zambasta. The aim of the present article is to analyse these metrical passages in order to determine
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A Step Forward in Reaching toward the Indo-Iranian Background of the Avestan and Vedic Liturgies Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Velizar Sadovski
This survey discusses a series of achievements in comparative Indo-Iranian studies, on the occasion of the appearance of a new representative volume. The presentation of these achievements aims to trace existing and new directions of scholarly co-operation between Vedists, Avestologists, specialists in Achaemenid and Sassanian studies, as well as, more generally, between Indo-Europeanists, philologists
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Buddhist Homiletics on Gambling (*Saddharmaparikathā, Ch. 12) Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-12-02 Péter-Dániel Szántó
The paper focuses on the 12th chapter of the *Saddharmaparikathā, a Buddhist homileticians’ guidebook containing sample sermons, dealing with the topic of gambling (dyūta). I edit, translate, and discuss the chapter with an introduction that includes a short overview of gambling in Sanskrit literature at large. The anonymous author is dismissive of gambling in all its forms, whether it is practised
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A New Inscription of the Pāṇḍuvaṃśins of Dakṣiṇa Kosala Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-12-02 Daud Ali, Diana Shuheng Zhang
This is the first notice, edition, and translation of a royal order in Sanskrit, engraved on a set of three copper-plates kept in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The inscription is dated to the seventh year of the reign of Nannarāja I, king of the Pāṇḍuvaṃśin lineage active in Dakṣiṇa Kosala in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. The inscription provides important new information
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Breath and the Brahmacārin Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-07-29 Robert Leach
In this paper I offer a solution to the meaning of the word triṣaptā́ḥ found at the beginning of the Atharvaveda (Śaunaka-Saṁhitā 1.1.1 ~ Paippalāda-Saṁhitā 1.6.1). After a discussion of the many previous attempts to understand the meaning of this term in this particular verse, I propose that triṣaptā́ḥ refers here to ‘three times seven’ breaths, that the speaker of the verse in question is a Brahmacārin
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Lexical Notes on the Khotanese Piṇḍaśāstra Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-07-29 Silvia Luzzietti
The single Chinese scroll comprised of manuscripts P 2893 (Paris) and Ch. 00265 (London) contains the Late Khotanese āyurvedic text conventionally titled Piṇḍaśāstra and so far unidentified in other languages. As a contribution to the interpretation of the text and to the knowledge of Khotanese medical terminology, the article offers two etymologies and reinterprets two ghostwords paying close attention
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Serious Play Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-07-29 Jonathan A. Silk
The Lalitavistara is one of the most influential hagiographies of the Buddha. It has been known in Sanskrit since the early days of modern studies of Buddhism, but was long available only in inadequate editions. That has now changed with the publication of the edition of K. Hokazono, now complete in three volumes. The present paper discusses something of the history of the study of the text, Hokazono’s
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The Origin of Akṣayanīvī and the Historical Context of the Arthaśāstra Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-07-11 Kelsey Martini
This paper has two purposes. The first is to provide an accurate definition and history of the origin of the Sanskrit term akṣayanīvī. The standard scholarly translation of this term, which is encountered almost exclusively in inscriptions, is “permanent endowment” and has been established since the mid-19th century. It will be shown that the usual translations of both members of the compound—akṣaya
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Semantics and Etymology in Yāska’s Nirukta Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-07-10 Paolo Visigalli
This paper provides a new interpretation of a type of etymological explanation (T) characteristic of Yāska’s Nirukta. The proposed interpretation sheds light on Yāska’s distinctive ideas on the relation between semantics and etymology. Exemplified by the occurrence meghaḥ … mehati iti sataḥ, T conveys the following information: the noun to be explained is a name (nāman-) that denotes a certain thing
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The Semantics of Sharpness and the Prohibition of the Pungent Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-07-10 Carmen S. Spiers
This study proposes a new understanding of the semantics behind Sanskrit śigru-, which Lubotsky (2002) suggested is a loanword from Scythian related to Old Persian *θigra(ka)- and Modern Persian sīr “garlic.” Although śigru- has been assumed to refer to Moringa oleifera Lam. “drumstick tree,” Meulenbeld (2009=2018) has shown that in Āyurvedic literature it is not exclusively used to denote moringa
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A Fall into the Pit: Remarks on Tocharian B koṣko, koṣkīye Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2022-03-16 Chams Benoît Bernard, Ruixuan Chen
This paper argues that Tocharian B koṣko, koṣkīye does not mean ‘hut’, as was taken for granted, but ‘pit, hole’; and that it is not an inherited Indo-European word, but an Iranian loanword in Tocharian B. Although the possibility of a borrowing from an unknown Middle Iranian language cannot be excluded, an unattested (Pre-)Bactrian form *kōškā is demonstrated to be the most likely source of this loanword
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Buddhist Homiletics on Grief: (*Saddharmaparikathā, ch. 11) Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-12-01 Péter-Dániel Szántó
The study first introduces a hitherto completely unstudied anonymous work, for which I reconstruct the title *Saddharmaparikathā. This substantial text is a Buddhist homiletician’s guidebook with sample sermons in Sanskrit on a rich variety of topics. I argue that it dates from the 5th century and that it was possibly authored in a Saṃmatīya environment. I first discuss the unique manuscript transmitting
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The Guru as Śiva: Govinda Kaula’s Gurustutiratnāvalī and a Lineage of Devotion in Kashmir Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-12-01 Hamsa Stainton
This article introduces and analyzes the Gurustutiratnāvalī, a sophisticated eighteenth-century Sanskrit hymn composed by Govinda Kaula of Kashmir in praise of his teacher’s teacher, the prolific author Sāhib Kaula. It evaluates the evidence for Govinda Kaula’s dating, lineage, and literary activity and presents the first published edition and translation of select verses of his Gurustutiratnāvalī
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Powers of Protection: The Buddhist Tradition of Spells in the Dhāraṇīsaṁgraha Collections, by Gergely Hidas Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-12-01 Jonathan A. Silk
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The Jewel of Annual Astrology: A Parallel Sanskrit-English Critical Edition of Balabhadra’s Hāyanaratna, by Martin Gansten Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-12-01 Jeffrey Kotyk
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A Central Asian Buddhist Term: Remarks on Khotanese saña- and Tocharian B sāñ, A ṣāñ Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-10-06 Alessandro Del Tomba, Mauro Maggi
The Khotanese masculine substantive saña- ‘artifice, expedient, means, method’ cannot be a loanword from the Gāndhārī feminine saṃña ‘perception, idea’ (< Sanskrit saṃjñā-), as has been recently suggested. Bilingual evidence for its meaning, its metrical use, and the contexts where it occurs show unambiguously that it differs formally and semantically from the Khotanese feminine saṃñā- ‘idea, notion
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Dates, Places, Verses: Random Remarks on the Catalogue of the “Paṇḍit Collection” in the Royal Library, Copenhagen Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-10-06 Oskar von Hinüber
Reviewing the catalogue of the Paṇḍit Collection in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, which was (as far as the colophons allow this conclusion) mainly collected from Western India and from Benares during the 16th through 19th centuries, offers also an opportunity for a preliminary study of some aspects of colophons, particularly the problems incurred in fully understanding the dates and their vocabulary
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Zur Didaktik mittelindischer Sprachen, by Klaus Mylius & Lehrbuch der Ardhamāgadhī, by Klaus Mylius & Māhārāṣṭrī. Grammatischer Abriss und Wörterbuch, by Klaus Mylius & Śaurasenī. Grammatik und Glossar, by Klaus Mylius & Māgadhī. Grammatik, Textproben und Glossar, by Klaus Mylius & Vergleichende Grammatik der literarischen Prākṛt-Sprachen, by Klaus Mylius Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-10-06 Oskar von Hinüber
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Georg Bühler’s Contribution to Indology, by Amruta Chintaman Natu Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-10-06 Rosane Rocher
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A Thousand Judgements. Festschrift for Maria Macuch, by Almut Hintze, Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst, and Claudius Naumann, eds. Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-10-06 Oskar von Hinüber
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Wörterbuch altindoarischer geographischer Namen, by Klaus Mylius Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-10-06 Oskar von Hinüber
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Buddhist Children and Misunderstood Crows Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-05-27 Petra Kieffer-Pülz
This article reviews the book Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions. It first gives an overview of the contents, altogether nineteen articles discussing children and childhood in Buddhist texts and traditions. Subsequently, the concepts of kākuṭṭepaka pabbajjā and upāsaka pravrajyā, presented in one of the articles, are discussed in more detail.
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The Early Historical Semantics of Śruti Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-05-27 Guy St. Amant
An examination of the early usage of the word śruti is needed to clarify how it came to refer to the Veda. This paper reveals that śruti did not assume this meaning as the result of a belief in the aural revelation of the Vedic hymns. The śrautasūtras use the word śruti to cite brāhmaṇa texts and to indicate “hearing” a unit of speech in a Vedic passage. The second of these meanings was probably the
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What is Ailing Purāṇic Studies? Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-05-27 Peter C. Bisschop
Commencing from a critical reading of two recent publications on the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa and the Devīmāhātmya, this article argues that, contrary to what is maintained by the author of the two books under review, what is ailing Purāṇic studies is not a reliance on traditional modes of textual criticism, but a misunderstanding about its utility for accessing the dynamic history of Purāṇic text corpora
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YAv. Spitiiura- and the Compositional Form of PIE *u̯r̥h1-en- ‘Lamb’ in Indo-Iranian Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-05-27 Alexander Nikolaev
This paper argues that the second member of the Avestan compounded personal name Spitiiura- goes back to the Indo-Iranian word for ‘lamb’: Ved. úran-, Mod. Pers. barra. The name ‘having shining white lambs’ can be shown to have mythopoetic parallels in other Indo-European traditions. It is argued that the expected second member *-u̯r̥h1n-ó- formed from simplex *u̯r̥h1en- with a thematic suffix was
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The Essence of Politics. Kamandaki, by Jesse Ross Knutson Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-03-29 Harald Wiese
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Grammar of Old Tamil for Students, by Eva Wilden Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-03-29 E. Annamalai
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Kāma at the Kadamba Court: The Guḍnāpur Pillar Inscription of Ravivarman as a Text-Monument Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-03-29 Elizabeth A. Cecil, Mekhola Gomes
In March 1971, B.R. Gopal discovered a partially buried pillar with visible inscribed writing in the village of Guḍnāpur in Karnataka. The monument has since become known as the Guḍnāpur Pillar Inscription of Ravivarman (ca. 465–500 CE) after the ruler of the early Kadamba kingdom who commissioned it. The inscription preserves a compelling historical record that details the intersections of religious
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Lime Burning as a Religious Metaphor in Buddhist India Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2021-03-29 Jürgen Hanneder
The Buddhist author Ravigupta compares the destruction of afflictions, thought to come about through jñāna and samādhi, to a “sudhopala”, a limestone thrown into water for the production of quicklime. The article explores the realia and Sanskrit terminology behind the image and its intertextual ramifications.
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Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir, by Hamsa Stainton Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Luther Obrock
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Asbestos and Salamander in India Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Péter-Dániel Szántó
The present paper, an homage to B. Laufer’s “Asbestos and Salamander” (1915), adds South Asia to the story of a remarkable Eurasian cultural meme meant to explain the presence of fire-proof cloth after its manufacturing technology was forgotten, namely that asbestos was the fur of a mythical animal. I argue that none of our Sanskrit dictionaries contain the correct meaning of the term agniśauca, which
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Brahmanical Theology and a Buddhist Text: The Case of the Tevijja Sutta Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Brett Shults
The Tevijja Sutta is an early Buddhist text notable for the way it addresses a problem in Brahmanical theology. Many have studied or cited the Tevijja Sutta, but for various reasons scholars have had trouble describing the problem that the sutta addresses. This article reviews some key developments in the modern academic study of the Tevijja Sutta and proposes a solution to interpretive difficulties
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Origins of the Mahāyāna Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-11-11 Jonathan A. Silk
A new volume, Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism (2018), collects essays on questions related to the origins of the Mahāyāna Buddhist movement. This review article considers the contributions, and offers a few observations on the state of the field.
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A Resurgent Interest in “Hindu Fiction” Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-09-24 Jonathan A. Silk
A review article on Willem Bollée, A Cultural Encyclopaedia of the Kathāsaritsāgara in
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Mahāyāna Sūtras in Khotan: Quotations in Chapter 6 of the Book of Zambasta (II) Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-09-24 Ruixuan Chen, Diego Loukota
The present paper continues a serial article dealing with the identifications of sources for Chapter 6 of the Book of Zambasta, a Mahāyāna Buddhist poem in Khotanese. The first installment of this serial article was published in 2018 by the same authors in this journal. In this installment, we report on new identifications made in the interim, and offer a detailed analysis of four additional identified
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The History of the Arthaśāstra. Sovereignty and Sacred Law in Ancient India, by Mark McClish Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-22 Peter C. Bisschop
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An Analysis of the Verses in the Tattvārthādhigamabhāṣya Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-22 Lucas den Boer
The Tattvārthādhigamabhāṣya, which is an early commentary on the Tattvārthādhigama attributed to Umāsvāti, contains several passages in verse. The inclusion of these verses has not been studied before, even though they are relevant for the discussion of the relationship between the Tattvārthādhigama and the bhāṣya. This article provides an analysis and translation of these verses, including the introductory
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Indian Buddhist Attitudes toward Outcastes: Rhetoric around caṇḍālas Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-22 Jonathan A. Silk
Indian Buddhist literary sources contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination. However, they also provide ample evidence for, possibly subconscious, discriminatory attitudes toward outcastes, prototypically caṇḍālas. The rhetoric found in Indian Buddhist literature regarding caṇḍālas is examined in this paper.
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Buddhism and the Dynamics of Transculturality: New Approaches, by Birgit Kellner, ed. Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-04 Jonathan A. Silk
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Krishna’s Lineage. The Harivamsha of Vyāsa’s Mahābhārata, by Simon Brodbeck Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-04 Peter C. Bisschop
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A Buddhist Ritual Manual on Agriculture: Vajratuṇḍasamayakalparāja—Critical Edition and Translation, by Gergely Hidas Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-04 Jonathan A. Silk
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Oskar von Hinüber. Kleine Schriften III, by Harry Falk, Haiyan Hu-von Hinüber and Walter Slaje, eds. Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-04 Jonathan A. Silk
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The Copper Plates of Helagupta: A New Edition and Study Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2020-06-04 Richard Salomon
The article presents a new edition, translation, and interpretation of the inscription, which was previously published by H. Falk in 2014, of the otherwise unknown Buddhist patron Helagupta (helaüta). The inscription, datable to the latter half of the first century CE, is recorded on five copper plates and is the second longest one known in Kharoṣṭhī script/Gāndhārī language. This edition proposes
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Vedic Cosmology and Ethics: Selected Studies, by Henk Bodewitz Indo-Iranian Journal Pub Date : 2019-12-05 Per-Johan Norelius