13 Literary and Visual Narratives in

Gandhran Buddhist Manuscripts

and Material Cultures
Localization of Jtakas, Avadnas,
andPrevious-Birth Stories
Jason Neelis
LOCALIZATION OF BUDDHISM IN GANDHRA
Around the beginning of the Common Era, local patrons and powerful regional
rulers fuelled the production of early Buddhist literary and material cultures in
ancient Gandhra. Their support contributed to the growth of Buddhist stpas
and residential monasteries in the Peshawar basin and neighboring regions of the
Swat and Kabul valleys of northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan (Figure13.1).
Artisans belonging to regional ateliers synthesized and transformed local,
Indian, Iranian, Central Asian, and Hellenistic visual elements and styles in Buddhist sculptures and architecture at Gandhran archaeological complexes. While
distinctively hybrid features in Gandhran Buddhist art continue to attract interest,
recent acquisitions of collections of very early Buddhist manuscripts from the first
century bce to third century ce supply valuable written evidence for the emergence and development of Gandhran Buddhist literary traditions in the regional
vernacular language of Gndhr. Material culture and newly emerging literary
sources reflect Gandhran Buddhist efforts to establish and consolidate a Buddhist
presence and to domesticate narratives in order to make Gandhra a second holy
land (Foucher 19051951: 2.417) through institutionalization of what Jonathan
Z. Smith (2004: 10116) might a call a Buddhist topography of the sacred with
its own power of place (Huber 1999; Robson 2009).1
This contribution addresses methodological implications of differences
between Gandhran versions of literary and visual narratives of the Buddhas
previous births. The historical Buddha (kyamuni) did not visit Gandhra in
person during his own lifetime, aside from a miraculous journey with Vajrapi
described in an apocryphal account of his northwestern dharma conquest in the
Mlasarvstivda Vinaya (Przyluski 1914). However, Buddhist narratives link
events during his previous births to specific stpas, shrines, and pilgrimage sites
in Gandhra and neighboring regions or cities, such as the ancient metropolis of
Taxila and the Swat valley. Buddhist rebirth narratives depicted in Gandhran
sculptures and preserved in Gndhr manuscripts demonstrate a rich interplay
between literary and material cultures in specific regional and cultural contexts

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Narratives in Buddhist Manuscripts 253

Figure 13.1 Gandhran Buddhist archaeological and pilgrimage sites. Designed by Jason
Neelis and Andrea Philips.

during the early centuries ce, and differences between the types of stories selected
for transmission in written and visual media raise several questions:
1. How does Buddhist literature in Gndhr relate to the material culture of
Gandhran Buddhist art, archaeology, and pilgrimage patterns?
2. Why were certain narratives and motifs selected for written transmission
and visual representation?
3. How are tensions between fidelity to narrative details, structure, and content and flexible innovation, which facilitated reception and adaptation in
the Gandhran cultural milieu, resolved?
A comparative focus on Jtakas in Gandhran sculptures and narrative summaries of Avadnas and Prvayogas in Gndhr manuscripts reveals uneven
patterns of transmission of written and visual narratives and varying degrees of
hybridity and originality. Gndhr Avadnas and Prvayogas overlap with widespread Jtaka narratives of the Buddhas earlier lives in Pli, Sanskrit, Chinese,
Tibetan, and Southeast Asian vernacular literature (Skilling 2008). Depictions of
rebirth narratives in Buddhist art, including Jtakas labelled with second-century
bce Brhm inscriptions at Bhrhut (Lders 1963), and found at other Indian sites
including Aja (Schlingloff 2000), Bodh Gaya, Sc, Amarvat, Mathur,
and Kanganhalli (Meister 2010) reflect complex interplay between oral, written,
and visual repertoires. These illustrations presuppose the emergence of rebirth

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254 Jason Neelis

narratives in oral storytelling traditions, which were not necessarily replicated in
Pli and Sanskrit texts (Santoro 1999; Schlingloff 1982; Taddei 1999). Original
narrative compositions labelled as Avadnas and Prvayogas in Gndhr Buddhist
manuscripts briefly summarize the previous births and notable exploits of various
figures, from kyamunis followers to contemporary Gandhran figures from the
first century ce. Gndhr versions with formulae calling for the informal summaries to be expanded in greater detail belong to the initial stages of a transition
from oral to written transmission and provide the earliest literary evidence for the
development of important narrative genres. The extent of fidelity to South Asian
models and innovative appropriation of non-Indic elements, motifs, and characters
varies according to media, genre, chronology, and subregional factors. Anomalies of material and literary production of Jtaka episodes depicted in Gandhran
art and Avadna and Prvayoga narratives summarized in original compositions
in Gndhr manuscripts apparently reflect separate patterns of trans-localization,
reconfiguration, and re-contextualization of Buddhist narrative imagery and texts.
In contrast to studies of early Buddhist traditions based mainly or even exclusively on literary texts, material sources initially provided immediate access to
Gandhran Buddhist practices and visual culture, while an emerging corpus of
Gandhran Buddhist texts has become greatly enlarged by discoveries within the
last two decades.2 The sources now available shed light on distinctive features of
Gandhran Buddhism, which was in dynamic flux since the first stages of implantation (Fussman 1994), probably during the time of the Mauryan emperor Aoka
(ruling ca. bce 272232), whose Kharoh, Greek, and Aramaic inscriptions signaled administrative control of the northwest.3 Archaeological explorations and
excavations since the nineteenth century testify to high levels of cultural production in Gandhra, where economic surpluses generated by agriculture and trade
contributed to urban growth and generated material support for a proliferation of
Buddhist stpas and monasteries clustered outside of settlements and on hillsides
and transit routes in the early centuries ce. Sculptures and other artifacts from
Buddhist sites are especially rich sources for well-developed art-historical analyses of religious iconography and intercultural exchanges pioneered by Alfred
Foucher, the father of Gandhran studies (Zwalf 1996: 74) who established the
French Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan in 1922 and promoted a theory of
a Graeco-Buddhist school of art with Gandhra serving as a transit zone for the
diffusion of foreign influences from Europe to Asia.4 Numismatic evidence from
coins and seals serve as crucial pieces to the puzzle for reconstructing a relative
chronological framework for regional political history and illustrate the use of
intercultural and inter-religious symbolism.5 In addition to Aokan inscriptions,
around 800 Gndhr inscriptions record donations of various gifts to Buddhist
communities in Gandhra, thereby testifying to practices of veneration and
patronage, the distribution of monastic orders, and movement along routes for
commercial and religious exchange.6 Since the British Librarys acquisition of
Kharoh fragments in 1994, additional collections of early Buddhist manuscripts
written in the Kharoh script and Gndhr language have significantly expanded
the available corpus of textual materials for Gandhran Buddhist literary culture

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Narratives in Buddhist Manuscripts 255

beyond a single incomplete manuscript of a Gndhr version of the Dharmapada
discovered far outside of Gandhra in Khotan in 1892.7 Cross-cultural contact
and inter-religious exchange were significant catalysts for religious mobility and
institutional expansion beyond Gandhra to Bactria and the Tarim Basin.
TRANSMISSION OF REBIRTH NARRATIVES IN
GNDHR MANUSCRIPTS
An expanded corpus of Gandhran Buddhist manuscripts calls for provisional
assessments of relationships with the material culture of Gandhran Buddhist
art and archaeology. While selective appropriation of hybrid features is readily
apparent in Gandhran visual imagery, the extent to which Gandhran Buddhist
literary texts are culturally distant or relatively close to Indian Buddhist literary
traditions varies significantly. Depending on the genre and style, Gndhr manuscripts exhibit various levels of originality, innovation or fidelity to Indian Buddhist
parallels. In a survey of recently discovered Buddhist Manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mark Allon (2008: 162) observes that Gandhran Buddhists
transmitted stras and other texts from the Indian Buddhist heartland and were
actively engaged in the creation of texts, many of which lack direct literary parallels in Sanskrit and Pli. Gndhr texts that have been transmitted, translated,
transposed, and transformed from other Buddhist literary traditions are often similar but not exactly identical to parallels in Pli and Sanskrit sources, particularly
Gndhr versions of verses of the Rhinoceros-stra and the Anavatapta-Gth
(Salomon 2000; 2008). Other Gndhr texts have complex intertextual relationships, including three Ekotarrikgama-type stras (Allon 2001), two of which have
direct literary parallels with Pli texts in the Aguttara Nikya, but the second of
the three stras, the Budhabayaa (Buddhavacana) stra, has no parallel.8 Among
four Gndhr Sayuktgama stras in the Senior collection (Glass 2007), the first
stra (Saa-stra) lacks a direct parallel and the description of the perception of
non-delight in the entire world (sarvaloge aaviraa saa) appears to be unique.
Original compositions of Gndhr commentaries in the British Library collection
adopt exegetical techniques similar to Pli traditions but seem to represent a very
early stage in the categorical reduction (Baums 2009) of doctrinal concepts, such
as the Four Truths. Mahyna and Vinaya texts were not identified in the British
Library and Senior collections of Gndhr manuscripts, but subsequent access to
Vinaya fragments and Mahyna and proto-Mahyna Pure Land and Perfection
of Wisdom texts in the Bajaur and Split collections as well as identifications of
Bhadrakalpik-stra fragments in the Schyen Gndhr fragments clearly demonstrate that Vinaya and Mahyna texts were circulating in Gandhra as early as
the first three centuries ce.9
Gndhr manuscripts preserve several narratives about the Buddhas present
and previous lives, with expected overlaps and surprising discrepancies with motifs
in Gandhran Buddhist art. Several Gndhr texts in the Senior scrolls preserve
hagiographical accounts of kyamunis awakening at Bodh Gaya, including the

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256 Jason Neelis

conversion of Sujta and her family and donations by the two merchants Trapua
(Trivua) and Bhallika (Valia), a scene that is also depicted in Gandhran sculptures (Allon 2007: 1718, 2425; 2013). Almost fifty Prvayogas and Avadnas
in Kharoh manuscripts of the British Library collection are informal summaries
written by two specialist scavenger scribes as original compositions and probably served as memory aids for oral expansion (Lenz 2003: 1028; Salomon 1999:
35). Prvayogas link stories of the past with the present lives of figures such as
Ananda and Ajta Kauinya, while Avadnas tend to focus on the present lives,
although many Avadnas are karmic tales explaining how current conditions
resulted from past actions. Avadnas and Prvayogas with Gandhran historical characters from the contemporary context of the first century ce demonstrate
literary domestication of Buddhist narratives in Gandhra (Lenz 2010: 8293;
Neelis 2008; Salomon 1999: 14149). Allusions to prominent figures such as the
Great Satrap (Mahakatrapa) Jihoniga in Gandhra (gadharami),10 who is also
known from first-century ce coins and an inscribed vessel from Taxila, and to
Apavarman, a member of the Apraca dynasty attested in first-century ce coins
and an inscribed silver saucer from Taxila who helps to make arrangements for
sheltering monks during the rainy season (Salomon 1999: 14549; Lenz 2010:
8593), were likely intended to acknowledge their religious patronage and to
appeal to contemporary Gandhran audiences. Other figures with Indo-Iranian
names, such as Zadamitra, who is the protagonist in the Avadna with Apavarman
and makes a vow to become awakened after discussing the disappearance of the
True Dharma (Saddharma) in the preceding Avadna, also tend to be favorably
depicted. Timothy Lenz (2003: 18291) connects the Avadna of Zadamitra with
a dialogue between a aka (Indo-Scythian) and a monk in which the aka vows
to become an Arhat in a Prvayoga set in Taxila. The roles of these characters as
aspiring devotees of Buddhism contrast with other Buddhist ex eventu prophecies
associating the True Dharmas disappearance with an invasion by foreign kings,
including akas, Parthians, and Greeks (Lenz 2013). Although these original compositions with contemporary historical figures present interpretive difficulties due
to the lack of direct literary parallels, they provide a glimpse of how Gandhran
Buddhist storytellers and scribes adapted narratives to local settings in order
to attract potential patrons, including akas, Kuas, and Huns.
VISUAL NARRATIVES OF JTAKAS IN
GANDHRAN BUDDHIST ART
Hagiographical scenes from kyamuni Buddhas lifetime are more commonly
represented in Gandhran sculptures than his previous birth narratives, but about a
dozen Jtakas have been identified, typically in secondary or subsidiary positions
(Foucher 19051957: 1.27079, 2.1626; Odani 2008; Zwalf 1996: 13445).
However, Avadna and Prvayoga narratives in Gndhr fragments of the British
Library collection do not seem to correspond with Jtakas depicted in Gandhran
sculptures, with the single exception of a story of the Buddhas previous birth

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Narratives in Buddhist Manuscripts 257

as Sudaa who gave everything away (an abbreviated version of the widespread
Vessantara/Vivantara Jtaka).11 This apparent discrepancy between Gndhr
manuscripts and visual culture of Gandhran Buddhist art is both surprising and
intriguing, since literary and artistic media belonging to approximately the same
period (early centuries ce) of regional Buddhist cultural production localize different sets of narratives in Gandhra. A Jtaka in which a Brahman student named
Megha or Sumati worships the previous Buddha Dpakara and vows to be reborn
as the Buddha is the most widely depicted previous-birth story in Gandhra and
appears as a prelude to the main narrative events of the Buddhas life.12 Gandhran
sculptures depict stories of other previous births of the Buddha as yma, a hermits son who was mortally wounded by a king while hunting but revived by
Indra,13 and as the sage Ekaga or Ryarga, who was the son of a singlehorned antelope (Foucher 19051951: 2.2023). Stories of previous births of
the Buddha as the merchant Maitrakanyaka,14 the Kinnara Candra,15 Amardev
in the Mah Umagga Jtaka (Odani 2008: 3013, Figure 26.7; Zwalf 1996: 58
n. 79), as well as nonhuman previous births as a deer (Ruru Jtaka) and an elephant with six tusks (aanta Jtaka) are also identified in Gandhran reliefs
based on similarities with literary versions in Pli and Sanskrit Buddhist texts and
iconographic parallels with narrative scenes in India and Central Asia (Foucher
19051951: 2.1620; Zwalf 1996: 5455). Visual narratives of bodily offerings
of King ibi (who gives away his flesh and eyes) and the Bodhisattva prince who
sacrifices himself to feed a hungry tigress and her cubs (Vyghr Jtaka) appear in
Gandhran art and in petroglyphs along the upper Indus River.16
The absence of these visual narratives in extant Gndhr manuscripts suggests
divergent lines of development of rebirth narratives in Gandhran literary and
visual cultures. Differences between selective appropriations of Buddhist rebirth
stories in Gandhran texts and art challenge assumptions that texts guide religious
iconography. The transmission of written and visual narratives selected from a
wider range of stories that were circulating through the northwestern borderlands
between South Asia and Central Asia by Gandhran artisans and scribes was
guided by various considerations, including an impetus to localize the narratives
in regional contexts in order to attract patrons and pilgrims.
GANDHRAN ARCHAEOLOGY OF PILGRIMAGE:
CHINESE ACCOUNTS OF LOCALIZED NARRATIVES
Previous lives of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas identified with Gandhran shrines
attracted Buddhist pilgrims, including Chinese travelers who traveled from
Central Asia and through the northwestern borderlands in the fifth to seventh centuries ce. Descriptions of places associated with the Buddhas relics and previous
lives in accounts of Faxian, Song Yun, and Xuanzang have aided in interpreting
Gandhran Buddhist art and identifying archaeological sites of stpas and monasteries. Narratives depicted in Gandhran art that can be localized at specific
shrines in Gandhra and neighboring regions based on Chinese accounts include

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258 Jason Neelis

the Dpakara Jtaka in ancient Nagarhra (modern Jalalabad in northeastern
Afghanistan) and the Vivantara story near Shhbzgh or Shahr-i Bahlol in the
Peshawar valley.17 King ibis sacrifice of his flesh and his eyes are associated
with multiple sites in different regions ranging from Swat to the vicinity of the
upper Indus River and the outskirts of Taxila, where the princes bodily offering to
the tigress in the Vyghr Jtaka is also localized in Faxians account. Based on his
reconstruction of Xuanzangs itinerary from ancient Pukalvat to the Swat valley, Alfred Foucher (1915: 346) located a stpa associated with the yma Jtaka
at Periano her north of Charsada. The Ekaga Jtaka of the hermit who was
the antelopes son may be linked with ruins below the Shahkot Pass connecting
Gandhra with the Swat valley (Zwalf 1996: 55; Dehejia 1997: 201). Although
tienne Lamotte (1988 [1958]: 335, 442) considered these pilgrimage accounts
linking narratives of the Buddhas previous lives to various shifting locations to be
ahistorical imaginings,18 they quite clearly reflect Buddhist strategies to establish
geographical connections between the Gandhran region and kyamuni Buddha,
Bodhisattvas, and prominent Buddhist figures belonging to various past periods.
Localization of rebirth narratives (as well as bodily and other relics) enhanced the
importance of certain pilgrimage places and probably contributed to the formation
of regional Buddhist identity.
CONCLUSIONS ABOUT DISCONNECTIONS BETWEEN
GANDHRAN LITERARY AND VISUAL NARRATIVES
IN MANUSCRIPTS AND MATERIAL CULTURE
The employment of written and visual media to transmit Buddhist rebirth narratives complicates rather than clarifies shifting patterns of representation. The view
of Gandhran Buddhism from studying manuscript fragments with abbreviated
versions of Avadna and Prvayoga stories (which are now accessible in publications of the Gandhran Buddhist Texts series, but were not previously available
to scholars of Gandhran art history) does not perfectly align with earlier studies
of Jtakas in Gandhran art. A disconnection between the extant written summary stories in the British Library Kharoh fragments and the corpus of Jtaka
illustrations in Gandhran sculptures raises more questions instead of permitting
straightforward conclusions.
Nevertheless, patterns of selection reflect similar processes of localizing previous-birth narratives in Gandhra in order to domesticate the Dharma through
literary as well as material production. Stories such as the Vivantara Jtaka/
Sudaa Prvayoga, which were imported from northern India and adapted to
Gandhran settings, indicate the importance of establishing ties between the Buddhist heartland and the Northwest. Original Gndhr compositions of Avadnas
with contemporary local characters like Mahkatrapa Jihonika, the Apraca
Apavarman, Zadamitra, and an anonymous aka (as well as numerous other
figures with Indo-Iranian names and titles) reflect the multicultural distinctiveness of Gandhran Buddhism. Incorporation of powerful patrons with exogenous

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Narratives in Buddhist Manuscripts 259

backgrounds is also reflected in the hybrid style of Gandhran Buddhist art, which
blends Indian, Iranian, Hellenistic, Central Asian, and local features in a manner
designed to appeal to the tastes of diverse regional audiences. Locative tendencies in Gandhran Buddhist texts and art went hand-in-hand with institutional
consolidation and expansion in the northwestern borderlands of South Asia, where
cultural production peaked during periods of aka, Kua, and Alchon Hun rule
in approximately the first five centuries ce. Re-contextualizations of narratives
in written and visual media honed in the Gandhran laboratory demonstrated
strategies that were successfully adopted for further translocations of Buddhist
narratives across Central and East Asia.
Apparent differences between Avadna and Prvayoga stories selected for written
summary in manuscripts and the limited number of Jtakas illustrated in Gandhran
art (particularly in contrast with numerous Jtakas at Bhrhut) would seem to suggest that scribes and artisans working in their own media had their own unique
considerations. In both cases, however, oral storytelling traditions underlie these
considerations, since (as Timothy Lenz [2003: 8591] points out in his analysis of
formulae in manuscript fragments calling for detailed expansion of Avadnas and
Prvayogas) written summaries reflect a transitional phase between oral and written
transmission and the visual form may have been more amenable to innovation than
fixed texts (Santoro 1999). Despite differences in the selection of narratives (with
the single exception of the story of Vivantara/Sudaa), it is interesting to note that
genres of previous-birth stories in both literary and visual media occupied secondary positions: In Gandhran manuscripts, scavenger scribes wrote Prvayogas and
Avadnas in leftover spaces at the bottom of the recto and on the verso of birchbark scrolls, while (apart from Dpakara Jtaka panels in sequences depicting
hagiographical episodes from kyamuni Buddhas present life-story), small Jtaka
reliefs in Gandhran sculptures tend to belong to subsidiary architectural elements
(for example, stair-risers) rather than the path of circumambulation around stpas.
The placement of Avadnas, Prvayogas, and Jtakas may support the impression that previous-birth narratives were eclipsed by hagiographical narratives of
kyamunis lifetime during the early centuries ce in Gandhra. The Avadna/
Prvayoga genre is prominently represented in the British Library collection of
Gndhr fragments from the first century ce and in about 300 fragments in the
Split collection (not treated here) with radiocarbon dates in the second to first
century bce range (Falk 2011: 20, Figure 5). However, this informal variety of
secondary narrative summaries is not found among the Gndhr texts represented
in the Bajaur, Senior, and Schyen collections belonging to somewhat later periods. Parallels for Gndhr Avadnas with local figures and regional settings in
the British Library collections are very difficult to identify in other Buddhist
literary traditions and do not seem to have been included in thematically organized genre bundles like the Avadnaataka and Jtakaml but, instead, may
belong to an early phase in the development of Buddhist rebirth story literature
before formal conventions were standardized in extant Pli and Sanskrit texts.
On the other hand, several hagiographic narratives recounting events connected
with kyamunis awakening (such as the gift of the two merchants and Sujtas

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260 Jason Neelis

offering) are among the texts belonging to the Senior collection, which is firmly
dated in the second century ce. Such a chronological shift in the type of narratives
written in Gndhr manuscripts might correspond with art-historical distinctions
between the relatively limited visual repertoire of Gandhran Jtaka reliefs and
more prevalent illustrations of kyamunis hagiographical events, as well as a
proliferation in the production of Gandhran Buddha images.
While suggestions for chronological implications are tentative and direct relationships between the emerging corpus of Avadna and Prvayoga narratives
preserved in Gandhran manuscripts and Jtakas in Gandhran narrative reliefs
remain elusive, these stories transmitted in written and visual media clearly fulfilled religious purposes. As Peter Skilling (2008: 68) emphasizes in connecting
the marks of the Buddhas body to ethical karmic acts in the series of previous
lives recalled in rebirth narratives, The jtakas have, in a sense, culminated in
the image. Jtakas, Avadnas, and Prvayogas serve as exemplary models for
emulating the Buddhas attainments by promulgating doctrines, justifying ethical
norms, and stimulating generous donations. Literary and visual narratives of past
and present lives in Gandhran manuscripts and material culture of images functioned as catalysts for achieving individual and institutional aspirations.
NOTES

6244-264.indb 260

1. Foucher (19051951: 2.41220; 19421947: 2.27980), Fussman (1994: 4344),

and Lamotte (1958/1988: 44142) discuss the institutionalization of sacred topography in Gandhra. Studies of Buddhist pilgrimage in the Indo-Tibetan borderlands by Huber (1999) and in medieval China by Robson (2009) have emphasized
processes for translocating Buddhist relics and narratives to regions outside of the
historical Buddhas homeland by drawing upon theories of locativizing tendencies
in the history of religions developed by Jonathan Z. Smith (1987; 2004).
2. Synthetic treatments of sources for the study of Gandhran Buddhism include a
succinct overview by Dietz (2007), articles on Gandhran art, archaeology, texts,
and coins edited by Behrendt and Brancaccio (2006), and an exceptional catalog of
Gandhran Buddhist art and archaeology in Pakistan (Luczanits 2008). An annotated bibliography on Gandhran Buddhism is available online from Oxford Bibliographies OnlineBuddhism (Neelis 2013).
3. Aokan inscriptions in the Northwest at Shahbazgarhi, Mansehra, and Kandahar
are not addressed to Buddhist audiences, unlike some Aokan inscriptions at Buddhist shrines such as Lumbini and others directed to Buddhist communities in India.
Fussman (1994: 19) is skeptical about attributions of the founding of Dharmarjika
stpas at Taxila and elsewhere in the Northwest to Aoka by later Chinese visitors
and by Buddhist literary traditions (Strong 2004: 13637), since archaeological
evidence belongs to the second century bce rather than the period of Aokas rule.
4. Fouchers (19051951 and 19421947) works remain important points of departure. Filliozat and Leclant (2009) include assessments of Fouchers legacy with a
list of his publications. Deydier (1950), Guene et al. (1998), and Zwalf (1996:
6776) provide detailed bibliographies on Gandhran art history.
5. See Richard Manns contribution to this volume.
6. A searchable online Catalog of Kharoh Inscriptions maintained by Stefan Baums
and Andrew Glass is a valuable resource, which updates Sten Konows (1929) edition of around 140 Kharoh inscriptions.

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Narratives in Buddhist Manuscripts 261

7. The Khotan version of a Gndhr Dharmapada was edited by John Brough (1962).
Since Richard Salomons (1999) overview of the British Library collection, scholarly
editions of Gndhr versions of the Rhinoceros Stra (Salomon 2000), Anavataptagth (Salomon 2008), Ekottarkgama-type stras (Allon 2001), Dharmapada
fragments, previous-birth stories, and Avadnas (Lenz 2003; 2010) have appeared
in the Gandhran Buddhist Texts series, along with manuscripts belonging to the
Senior collection (Salomon 2003; Glass 2007). Gndhr manuscripts belonging to
the Schyen collection (Allon and Salomon 2000), the Bajaur collection (Strauch
2008), and the Split collection (Falk 2011), as well as smaller collections are
described by Mark Allon (2008).
8. Allon 2001: 89 (1.3) suggests that since all three stras are associated with the
number 4, they may have belonged to a Gndhr section on fours, but there does
not seem to be any thematic relationship between them. The Budhabayaa-stra
dealing with the four postures (going, standing, sitting, and lying down awake) is
similar to suttas 11 and 12 of the Pli Catukka-nipta (Aguttara-nikya II 1315).
These suttas are thematically and sequentially related to the Pli parallel (sutta
14) for the Gndhr Prasaa-stra, which follows the Budhabayaa-stra (Allon
2001: 22443, 9).
9. Strauch (2008: 115) addresses Vinaya fragments in the Bajaur collections, which
in his view do not belong to a particular mainstream affiliation. Allon and Salomon
(2010), Strauch (2010), and Falk and Karashima (2012; 2013) discuss recent identifications of Mahyna texts in Gndhr manuscripts belonging to the Schyen,
Bajaur, and Split collections.
10. Lenz (2010: 9698) re-edits an avadna in British Library fragment 2 (pl. 20),
which was previously discussed by Salomon (1999: 14145) (the fragment is illustrated on the cover of Salomon [1999]). Lenz (2010: 98) tentatively suggests that
Buddhist relics or the Dharma was transported widely (ve[stra]gena bahadi) in
Gandhra (gadharami) during the reign of Jihoniga.
11. Anderl and Pons Forthcoming, chapter 2; Dehejia 1997: 199, fig. 185; Lenz 2003:
15765; Odani 1999: 303, fig. 26.6; Zwalf 1996: 14245, catalogue nos. 13740.
12. Dehejia 1997: 25, 186; Pons 2011: 2.4160; Odani 1999: 3003, figs. 26.45; Zwalf
1996: 54, 13438, catalogue nos. 12731.
13. Anderl and Pons Forthcoming, chapter 3; Dehejia 1997: 19799, fig. 184; Zwalf
1996: 13839, catalogue nos. 13233.
14. Foucher 1919: 1819; Zwalf 1996: 13940, catalogue no. 134.
15. Foucher 1919: 2326; Zwalf 1996: 14041, catalogue no. 135.
16. Bandini 2003: 4349, 11822; Bandini-Knig and Fussman 1997: 17879;
Foucher 1919: 1718; Thewalt 1983; Zwalf 1996: 14142, catalogue no. 136.
17. The distribution of larger images of the Dpakara Jtaka found in Kabul valley of
ancient Kapi and Vivantara reliefs in the Peshawar valley seem to reflect these
localizations, according to information from Jessie Pons.
18. Compare Foucher (1915: 28) on conversion of Hrit in Ancient Geography of
Gandhara: this will not be the only legend which originated in Central India and
which we shall find acclimatized in Gandhra by Buddhist missionaries.

19.
REFERENCES
Allon, Mark. 2001. Three Gndhr Ekottarkgama-type Sutras: British Library Kharoh
Fragments 12 and 14. Gandhran Buddhist Texts 2. Seattle.
Allon, Mark. 2007. Introduction: The Senior Manuscripts. In Four Gandhari
Samyuktagama Sutras: Senior Kharosth Fragment 5, 325, by Andrew Glass.
Gandharan Buddhist Texts 4. Seattle.

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Allon, Mark. 2008. Recent Discoveries of Buddhist Manuscripts from Afghanistan and
Pakistan and their Significance. In Art, Architecture and Religion: Along the Silk Roads,
ed. Kenneth Parry, 15378. Silk Road Studies 12. Turnhout.
Allon, Mark. 2013. A Gndhr Version of the Story of the Merchants Tapussa and Bhallika.
Bulletin of the Asia Institute 23: 920.
Allon, Mark and Richard Salomon. 2000. Kharoh Fragments of a Gndhr Version
of the Mahparinirvastra. In Buddhist Manuscripts 1, ed. Jens Braarvig, 24373.
Manuscripts in the Schyen Collection 1. Oslo.
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