Sanskrit Manuscripts : Śiṣyalekha

Candragomin

Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>An 11th century palm-leaf manuscripts of the <i>Śiṣyalekha</i>, a work belonging to the Buddhist epistolary genre (<i>lekha</i>). Composed by the Buddhist grammarian and poet Candragomin (5th century CE), it is a short ornate poem (<i>kāvya</i>) in the form of a letter containing an exposition of the Buddhist doctrine addressed to Candragomin's disciple Ratnakīrti, "who had broken is monk's vow and was engaged in a love affair with a princess" (Hahn 1998: liii). Edited twice, by I.P. Minaev in 1889 and by M. Hahn in 1998, it is considered by the latter as "the most refined of the extant Buddhist epistles" (Hahn 1998 li). The present manuscript was used by Hahn for his edition (in which it was given the siglum A). </p>