Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Browse Nearby Entries
Gāndhārī language
1 reference results for: Gandhari language
Wikipedia
Alternate meanings: see Gandhari

Gāndhārī was a north-western prakrit spoken in Gāndhāra. Like all prakrits, it is thus descended from either Vedic Sanskrit or a closely related prior language. Gāndhārī has been found written in the Kharoṣṭhī script. Scholars believe that the language featured elements from the languages native to the area (pre-Indo-European population), as well as Dardic and East-Iranian ethnic languages, which are related to the Indo-Aryan family to which all prakrits belong.

Buddhist manuscripts in Gāndhāri

Until the recent discoveries, the only Gāndhāri manuscript available to the scholars was a birch-bark scroll of Dharmapada discovered at Kohmāri Mazār near Khotan in Xinjiang, China in 1893 CE. Recently a large number of fragmantary manuscripts of Buddhist texts were discovered eastern Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan. These include,

  • 29 fragments of birch-bark scrolls of British Library collection consisting of parts of Dharmapada, Anavatapta gāthā, Khargavişāņa sutra, Sangiti sutra and a collection of sutras of Anguttara,
  • 129 fragments of palm leaf folios of Schøyen collection, 27 fragments of palm-leaf folios of Hirayama collection and 18 fragments of palm leaf folios of Hayashidera collection consisting of Mahāparinirvāna sutra and Bhadrakalpikā sutra,
  • 24 birch-bark scrolls of Senior collection consists of mostly different sutras and Anavatapta gāthā, and,
  • 8 fragments of a single birch-bark scroll and 2 small fragments of another scroll of University of Washington collection consisting of probably an Abhidharma text or other scholastic commentaries.

Notes

See also

References

  1. Rahman, Dr. Tariq, Peoples and Languages in Pre-Islamic Indus Valley,University of Texas at Austin.

Further reading

Yu. V. Gankovsky, The Peoples of Pakistan: An Ethnic History. Translated from the Russian by Igor Gavrilov (Lahore: Peoples' Publishing House, 1964)

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Tuesday March 04, 2008 at 06:57:25 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT
Share This:Share This: digg.comShare This: ma.gnolia.comShare This: www.stumbleupon.comShare This: del.icio.usShare This: FacebookShare This: favorites.live.comShare This: www.technorati.comShare This: furl.netShare This: myweb2.search.yahoo.comShare This: www.google.com