Sanskrit Manuscripts : Divyāvadāna

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Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>A modern paper manuscript of the <i>Divyāvadāna</i>, "Glorious Deeds", a collection of Buddhist tales very popular in Mediaeval and Early Modern Nepal. In the final stage of its redaction, this anonymous compilation consisted of 38 <i>avadāna</i>s. It has been edited by E.B. Cowell and R.A. Neil in 1884, mainly on the basis of modern Nepalese paper manuscripts. However, many scholars have stressed the heterogeneous character of the stories included in the <i>Divyāvadāna</i>: for instance, 21 stories have a more or less literal parallel in the <i>Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya</i> (see Panglung 1981: XV), while the 38th tale in Cowell and Neil's edition, the <i>Maitrakanyakāvadāna</i>, is now attributed to Gopadatta (see Hahn: 1992, <i>passim</i> and Klaus 1983: 5 ff.). In the edition, the present manuscript has been given the siglum A: "Add.865 in the Univ. Library; [...] dated 1873. Fairly written in the ordinary Nepalese character, but not very correct." (Cowell and Neil 1884: vi).</p>