[Buddha-l] Back to the core values? -- and origins

[Christopher Fynn]

curt wrote:

> As far as the earliest known texts are concerned, isn't it true that 
> there are Mahayana texts that are just as early as the earliest Pali 
> texts? Here I am speaking of actual physical texts, ie, manuscripts. 
> This would suggest that there IS a possible parallel to the Gospel of 
> Thomas.

AFAIK the earliest known physical texts seem to be some of the Gāndhārī 
manuscripts from Afghanistan written in Kharoṣṭhī script. - The earliest of 
which have been date to the 1st century CE. [Gāndhārī  was a Middle Indo-Aryan 
Prakrit, used in ancient Gāndhāra, a region which lies in parts of modern-day 
Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan.] - These are apparently not only the 
oldest known Buddhist manuscripts but also the earliest known manuscripts in
an Indic language.


<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandharan_Buddhist_Texts>
<http://depts.washington.edu/ebmp/ebmpintro.php>
<http://www.washington.edu/research/showcase/1996a.html>
<http://folk.uio.no/atleom/manuscripts.htm>
<http://www.cas.uio.no/Publications/Jubilee/Buddhist_Manuscripts.pdf>
<http://www.schoyencollection.com/Buddhism.htm>

- Chris