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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