Vimalakirti update and clarification

[Jonathan Silk]

Dear Colleagues,

Some clarifications and updates on the Vimalakirti materials:

All of these are courtesy of Matsuda Kazunobu.

1.  there is no question that the ms in question is on palm leaf.

2.  the first person to suggest the 11-12th c. date for the ms was
not Lore Sander but Matsuda himself. Also, the colophon was quoted by
Matsuda from a news report; he did not see and read it himself.

3. Taisho University has loaded the press release documents and snapshots
on their home page.

Snapshots:
http://www.tais.ac.jp/project/

Title and transliteration of Vimalakirti's colophon:
http://www.tais.ac.jp/project/shiryo6.html

Title and transliteration of Jnana-aloka-alamkara's:
http://www.tais.ac.jp/project/shiryo8.html

These are Japanese pages, but it may be possible to view the relevant
portion (I--Silk--do not know because my browser automatically reads
the Japanese). The Jnana-aaloka
-alamkaara isTibetan tr is Peking ed., No. 768, Chinese trs are
Taisho, Nos. 357, 358
and 359 in the vol.12.

4. Oskar v Hinuber wrote the following to Matsuda:
>  Concerning the colophon of the Vimalakirtinirdesa and the king Gopala, I
>  wonder, whether anybody has cared to check Pala history (e.g.:Jhunu Bagchi,
>  The History and Culture of the Palas of Bengal and Bihar. Delhi 1993, p.49
>  or:  G. Bhattacharya, Festschrift Bruhn). Without seeing the colophon, one
>  would suspect Gopala III 12th century! Thus there is no conflict at all
>  between colophon and script, unless there are strong arguments in favour
>  of Gopala I. On the other hand, there seem to be copied colophons. If you
>  have some good examples, I would be most grateful, because I just remember
>  the fact without having any hard evidence at hand.

I apologize for any possible confusion by my earlier emails.
--

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Jonathan Silk

jonathan.silk at yale.edu

Dept. of Religious Studies
Box 208287
Yale University
New Haven CT 06520-8287
USA

tel. 203-432-0828
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