[Buddha-l] Earliest Buddhist literature

[L.S. Cousins]

Stephen,

>L.S. Cousins wrote:
>>>Carbon dating of rare manuscripts from a private collection dubbed
>>>the "Dead Sea scrolls of Buddhism" may reveal the religion's ancient
>>>origins.
>>The reference seems to be to carbon dating of fragments from the
>>Senior collection. And the date range found was from 130 to 250 A.D.
>>This looks as if it confirms the dating of the slightly earlier
>>British Library material.
>
>Belatedly, but still not clear whose collection this is.

As far as I currently know, there are three main collections 
containing material in the Gaandhaarii script:

1. The oldest is the British Library Collection, some of which has 
been published in several volumes;

2. A second collection apparently containing slightly later materials 
is also in the UK. I presume it is called the Senior collection 
because it belongs to Bob Senior (of coin collecting fame).

Both these are being worked on by the same group of scholars led by 
Richard Saloman with a website at the University of Washington. Mark 
Allon is part of the same group, but is now working from Sydney in 
his native Australia. He apparently organized carbon-dating in 
Australia, hence the news material from there, although it might have 
happened a little while ago.

3. Harry Falk referred in a recent lecture to a collection at a 
University in Pakistan which is being worked on in association with a 
University in Germany, but I know little about that.

4. The Schoeyen Collection has some Gaandhaarii material, but is 
mostly in Braahmii or Braahmii-derived scripts. The date varies but 
does not appear to go back quite as far as the British Library 
Collection.

5. There is a lot of other material around in the possession of 
various collectors in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere. e.g. the 
Diirghaagama material.

>   I note the following from the Schoyen Collection website, "This 
>collection has already been considered a major discovery among 
>students of Buddhism, and has informally been called the Dead Sea 
>Scrolls of Buddhism".  Perhaps it would help if one collection 
>should be the Dead Sea Scrolls of Buddhisma and the other the Nag 
>Hammadi Scrolls of Buddhism.

I think we need a few more suggestions on the same lines !

Lance Cousins