Unpublished fragments of the Sanskrit manuscript SI 2093 of the Lotus Sūtra from the Serindia Collection of the IOM, RAS

Abstract

The article continues to introduce into scientific circulation the newly discovered Sanskrit fragments of the Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra) kept in the Serindia Collection of the IOM RAS, and also presents the intermediate results of the study of the Sanskrit manuscript heritage of Central Asia in general and texts of the Lotus Sūtra in particular within the work of the Serindica Laboratory – a recently formed subdivision of the IOM RAS. This publication includes five previously unpublished fragments of the Sanskrit Lotus Sūtra held in the Serindia Collection in the subcollection of N. F. Petrovsky under the call number SI 2093. The publication includes transliteration, translation into Russian and facsimile reproduction of these fragments. The article also outlines the physical features of the manuscripts, provides a brief analysis of the text of the fragments, and offers their comparison with the corresponding text from the largest existing Central Asian manuscript of the Sanskrit Lotus Sūtra which is well-known as so-called Kashgar manuscript of N. F. Petrovsky. The obtained results allow us to make significant progress in the study of the Buddhist manuscript heritage in Sanskrit outside India.