NEW BOOK: The Bhaik ṣukī Manuscript of the Candrālaṃkāra

[Dragomir Dimitrov]

NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

The Bhaikṣukī Manuscript of the Candrālaṃkāra
Study, Script Tables, and Facsimile Edition

By Dragomir Dimitrov

Cambridge, Mass. 2010
Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 72
Gebundene Ausgabe, xiv, 196 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-674-05138-6
Price: EUR 22.50 / USD 25.00 / GBP 18.95


SUMMARY

This volume discusses the Bhaikṣukī manuscript of the Candrālaṃkāra 
(“Ornament of the Moon”), a commentarial treatise of the twelfth century 
based on the Cāndravyākaraṇa (fifth century), Candragomin’s seminal 
Buddhist grammar of Sanskrit. The book offers an overview of the discovery 
of the Bhaikṣukī script, along with a description of all available written 
sources. The detailed study of the fragmentary codex unicus of the 
Candrālaṃkāra  is accompanied by a facsimile edition and extensive tables of 
the Bhaikṣukī script. The Buddhist author of the commentary has been 
identified for the first time, and the nature of his treatise and its position in 
the Cāndra school of grammar have been expounded. The history of the 
manuscript and newly discovered traces of the Bhaikṣukī script in Tibet have 
also been discussed. This publication will serve as a prolegomenon for the 
preparation of a critical edition of the Candrālaṃkāra, which until now was 
believed to have been lost irretrievably.

The Bhaikṣukī Manuscript of the Candrālaṃkāra will appeal to specialists with 
interests in a variety of fields such as Indian palaeography, grammar, 
Buddhism, history, and Indo-Tibetan studies.


CONTENTS
List of Illustrations. ix
Abbreviations. x
Acknowledgements. xi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION. 1
1.1 The Discovery of the Bhaikṣukī script. 3
1.2 The Sindhura Script. 6
1.3 Preliminary Analysis of the Candrālaṃkāra Manuscript. 9
1.4 Inscriptions in the Bhaikṣukī Script. 12
1.5 Manuscripts in the Bhaikṣukī Script. 15

CHAPTER TWO: THE CANDRĀLAṂKĀRA AND ITS MANUSCRIPT. 23
2.1 The Candrālaṃkāra. 25
2.2 Further Traces of the Bhaikṣukī Script in Tibet. 50
2.3 Letter-Numerals in the Bhaikṣukī Script. 53
2.4 The Order of the Folios of the Candrālaṃkāra Manuscript. 61

CHAPTER THREE: SCRIPT TABLES. 71
3.1 Tables of the Bhaikṣukī Script. 73
3.2 Palaeographic peculiarities. 117
3.3 Conclusion. 119

APPENDIX: Facsimile Edition of the Candrālaṃkāra Manuscript. 121
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 181
INDEX. 193


For further details see here:
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674051386

________________________________________

   Dr. Dragomir Dimitrov
   Indologie und Tibetologie
   Philipps-Universität Marburg
   Deutschhausstr. 12
   35032 Marburg
   Germany

   Tel.: +49 6421 28 24640, +49 178 9190340
   E-mail: dimitrov at staff.uni-marburg.de
   http://www.uni-marburg.de/indologie
________________________________________