Sanskrit-Tibetan Textual Work

[Ulrich T. Kragh]

Dear list-members,
I am working on a textual analysis of two works by the Buddhist philosopher
Candrakiirti. One of my texts is his Prasannapadaa, which exists in
Sanskrit editions and a Tibetan translation from the eleventh century AD by
the Tibetan ba tshab lotsaba. My other text is his Madhyamakaavataara
(kaarikaa + bhaas.ya), which now only exists in Tibetan translation
produced by the same translator.

I am now considering how to combine textual work on these texts - one in
Sanskrit/Tibetan, the other only in Tibetan. Susumu Yamaguchi has published
a complete Sanskrit-Tibetan / Tibetan-Sanskrit word index for the
Prasannapadaa. Since Madhyamakaavataara was translated by the same
translator as Prasannapadaa, I feel there is an adequate textual basis for
comparing the terminology of the two texts. The problem rather is how to
work with the Tibetan syntax of Madhyamakaavataara. May one at all try to
consider its original (and now lost) Sanskrit syntax, and how may one do
so? To which extent can one compare two texts originally by the same
author, but now preserved in different languages.

I would now like to ask:

Would anyone dare to suggest any guiding principles that I may use when
comparing the two texts?
Can anyone suggest literature dealing with such problems?
Can anyone suggest successful attempts of comparing Sanskrit-Tibetan
material, which may serve as a model for my research?

Your comments do not necessarily have to be restricted to the
Sanskrit-Tibetan issue. I am most interested in the problematic in general
- are there, for example, similar cases with Tamil-Sanskrit text editions,
or the like (and which principles are then used in such cases)?

With best regards,
Ulrich T. Kragh