Post on 14-May-2018
SanskritReadingRoom
DepartmentofLanguagesandCulturesofSouthAsia&DepartmentofHistory,ReligionsandPhilosophies,SOAS.
Wednesday8thNovember,2017,3-5pm
Session3:DrCamilloFormigattiJohnClaySanskritLibrarian,BodleianLibrary,UniversityofOxford
DeconstructingaCriticalEdition:TheAnāthapiṇḍadāvadānafromtheAvadānaśataka
TheAvadānaśatakaisconsideredoneofthemostancientcollectionsofBuddhistnarrative
literature.Initsearliestform,itisdatedtotheearlycenturiesCE.ItwastranslatedintoChineseandTibetanduringthefirstmillenniumCE,gaininglargepopularityacrossAsia.InhisseminalworkIntroductionàl’histoireduBouddhismeindien(1844),E.Burnoufconsidereditasoneofthe
mostrepresentativeoftheliterarygenreoftheavadāna.BasedonthedateoftheChinesetranslationsandthecharacterofthelanguage,theoriginalcoreofthiscollectionistobedatedbetweenthefirsthalfofthe5thcenturyandthebeginningofthe6thcenturyCEatthelatest.
TheAvadānaśatakaunderwentaredactionalprocessaroundthe7thcenturyCEinaMūlasarvāstivādaenvironment.Inthissessionwewillreadtheshort39thstory,
theAnāthapiṇḍadāvadāna,intheversionpublishedbyJ.Speyerinhiseditioprincepsof1902.ThiseditionislargelybasedonasingleNepalesemanuscriptdated1645CE(CULMSAdd.1611),writtenandeditedbytheNepalesescholarJayamuni.InordertoassessJayamuni’seditorialwork,inthesecondpartofthesessionwewill“deconstruct”Speyer’scriticaledition,comparingtheversionofthestoryaseditedbySpeyerwiththeversiontransmittedinCULMSAdd.1611,withtheversiontransmittedinolderpalm-leafmanuscriptsfromthe13th-15thcentury,aswellas
withthe9thcenturyTibetantranslation.(NoknowledgeofClassicalTibetanisrequiredtoattendthesession.)
WestonLibraryBodleianLibraries,UniversityofOxford
BroadStreet,OxfordOX13BG
Pleasenotewewillonlybemakingthistextavailabletosessionparticipants.
Spacesarelimitedandwillbebookedonafirstcomefirstservebasis.Anaudio-recordingofthesessionwillbemade.
BriefBio:CamilloFormigattistudiedIndologyandSanskritasasecondarysubjectwhenhewasstudyingClassicsat the “UniversitàStatale” inMilan.After that he spent tenyears inGermany,learningTibetanandtextualcriticisminMarburgandmanuscriptstudiesinHamburg.FromJune2008toMay2011,heworkedasaresearchassociateontheproject:In theMarginsof theText:Annotated Manuscripts from Northern India and Nepal, in Hamburg. From November 2011 toNovember 2014 he worked as a Research Associate on theSanskrit Manuscripts ProjectinCambridge and later as a collaborator in the projectTransforming Tibetan and Buddhist BookCulture. After having briefly taught Sanskrit at SOAS, since February 2016 he is the John ClaySanskritLibrarianattheBodleianLibrary,UniversityofOxford.
Tobookyourspace,pleasecontactRuthWestoby:Ruth_Westoby@soas.ac.uk