the oldest buddhist text found

[Halina Marlewicz]

Dear list members,

let me thank to Frank Conlon, Michael Rabe, George Thompson, Jerry 
Losty and Richard Salomon for their immediate response to my question.

Doubts dispelled and  curiosity fed for the moment, I still wonder 
about few things: will it ever be possible to determine the actual 
provenance of the scrolls? Will the history of Buddhism have to be 
written anew, considering the fact that, as R.Salomon writes "they 
(scrolls) will provide us with earliest documentary evidence of the 
contents of any of the Buddhist canons". I am no buddhologist but the 
discovery seems to be one one of greatest recent events in Indology, 
therefrom my interest. And, of course, my imagination is greatly 
stirred by hints from G.Thompson (who, by the way, not J.Silk 
refers to The New York Times article) as to unexpectable 
poetical valours of the text. Can't wait to read New York Times!

thank you again,
Halina Marlewicz
Jagiellonian University
Indology Dept.
Krakow, Poland
e-mail: hmarle at vela.filg.uj.edu.pl