Gleanings From The Mahavastu

Gleanings from the Mahāvastu brings together two closely related philological studies by Katarzyna Marciniak, published in the Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University. The first study appeared in Volume XXI (2018), followed by Gleanings from the Mahāvastu (II) in Volume XXIII (2020). The studies offer a detailed re-examination of difficult and sometimes corrupt passages in the Mahāvastu, with particular attention to readings preserved in early Nepalese manuscripts. Marciniak demonstrates how several passages that were altered or misunderstood in Émile Senart’s pioneering edition can be reconsidered through closer examination of manuscript evidence and comparison with parallel materials in Sanskrit, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Pāli, Chinese, and Tibetan sources. The second study explicitly emphasizes the importance of the old Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript Sa, dated approximately to the twelfth–thirteenth centuries, for restoring or improving problematic readings. Among the subjects examined are problematic vocabulary and grammatical forms, textual variants, scribal errors, metrical reconstruction, passages of the Mahāgovinda-sūtra, geographical names, and parallels with the Dīgha Nikāya, Saṃyutta Nikāya, Theragāthā, Chinese Buddhist translations, and other Sanskrit Buddhist texts. The discussion of such forms as vācanaka, apanītapāṇi, and anubuddhiṃ illustrates how manuscript evidence can significantly change the interpretation and translation of the Mahāvastu. This collection is therefore particularly valuable for scholars and advanced students interested in Buddhist textual criticism, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, manuscript studies, comparative Buddhist literature, and the transmission of early Buddhist narratives across linguistic traditions.