The Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dharmapada

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1. The Government of Bihar established the K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute at Patna in 1950 with the object Inter alia, to promote historical research, archaeological excavation and investigations and publication of works of permanent value to scholars. The Institute along with the five others was planned by the Government as a token of their homage to the tradition of learning and scholarship for which ancient Bihar was noted. Apart from the Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute, five others have been established to give incentive to research and advancement of knowledge- the Nalanda Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Pali and Buddhist Learning at Nalanda, the Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and research in Sanskrit Learning at Darbhanga, the Bihar Rashtra bhasha Parishad for advanced Studies and Research in Hindi at Patna, the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Jainism and Prakrit Learning at Vaishali and the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Arabic and Persain Learning at Patna.

The hymnic nature of the Pali canon is best portrayed in the Dhammapada, which is one of the most popular and eminent amongst the Buddhist texts. The conspicuous absence of the Dhammapada in Sanskrit or in hybrid Sanskrit has been a point of discussion and speculation amongst the Buddhist scholars. The absence was all the more felt when there was an urgent need to make a comparative study of the Theravāda Buddhism with those of other Schools. The availability of the Dhamma- pada text in Pali and Prakrit and its different recensions in the Chinese and Tibetan supported the view of the scholars about the existence of a separate version of the Dhammapada in Sanskrit or in mixed Sanskrit. The present hybrid Sanskrit version is a testimony confirming the view of the scholars.

The present edition of the Dharmapada is based on the manus- cript collected by Late Rahula Sankrtyayana from Tibet and deposited at the Bihar Research Society, Patna. The photostat copy of the manuscript was earlier made available to me by Professor V. V, Gokhale from his personal collection, and I wish to thank him for his kind help and guidance which he so generously rendered at the time when I submitted the present text in the form of a dissertation in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Literature in Buddhist Studies to the University of Delhi in 1964. I have an especial debt of gratitude to Dr. R. C. Pandey, Professor and Head of the Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi, who with all his critical insight readily guided me in the reading of the manuscript and suggested me ingenious readings at critical moments. For his matchless patience and enthusiasm, I shall ever remain thankful.

The recensions of the Dharmapada have always elicited great interest amongst the Buddhist scholars because of its ethical nature and its being a true representative of the early Buddhist canonical texts. It is of immense importance as it places before us gnomic poetry in its excellent form and also acts as a source for the history of the con- temporary Buddhist literature. It seems that the ethical verses scattered in the Buddhist canonical texts were assembled at one time without much of restriction and this is how this text attained a shape. In the beginning no restriction was put to the extent of the text, but at a later stage, the text was divided into vargas or chapters and the material was classi- fied under different heads leaving sufficient ground for further classifica- tion and regrouping. The gradual change took place in the number of verses under each chapter and also in the titles.