Tocharian B Manuscripts of the St Petersburg (IOM RAS) Collection

Abstract

This article provides information about the Tocharian B collection of the IOM RAS. It is a unique collection of Tocharian B manuscripts in Russia. It includes 87 wooden tablets and 383 manuscript fragments. Due to historical circumstances, the collection was not put into scholarly circulation. Only a few manuscripts have been introduced to the academic community, although it would be hard to overestimate the importance of this collection for knowledge of Tocharian palaeography and literature. The St Petersburg collection includes manuscript fragments from all the Tarim sites where traces of the Tocharians were found. Moreover, they are varied in scripts and content. There are fragments in archaic, middle, and late forms of the so-called “North Turkestan Brāhmī” script in their calligraphic and cursive variations. Buddhist texts are most numerous in terms of content. They include jātakas and avadānas, Āgama-related texts, Abhidharma and Vinaya texts, stotras, and other Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna texts. The collection of documents on paper and wooden tablets is of special attractiveness as some of the paper documents are complete folios. The article is mainly dedicated to the formation of the collection. It also summarizes research already done to introduce the manuscripts to the academic community. The references also provide a complete list of publications of the collection materials.