[INDOLOGY] pre-lined mss.

[Hartmut Buescher]

Dear Peter Szanto,

to shortly respond, though as a part-time codicological practician rather
fascinated
by the “anthropological” nature of manuscripts – given (unlike any animal
could),
how mirror-like they embody the physical, semiotic and semantic dimensions
of *homo sapiens* with regard to the concern of transmitting cultural
intelligence.

After all, those Mahāyāna Buddhist manuscripts produced at Pāla times you
referred to
do indeed likewise preserve semantic dimensions, with regard to which, when
attempting
a philosophical dialogue with them, historico-philological research alone
may easily get into
difficulties, be these admitted or not, to hermeneutically rise to an
appropriate level
of understanding.  Considering your issue of whether
the tangible increase of “pre-lined mss.”
>starts in the Pāla realm a little before 1000 CE and continues steadily up
>to the very end, whereas in Nepal it seems to begin only in the early 12th
c. :

Without having immediate implications for the total variety of Indian
manuscript
production in that period, this corresponds at least to what we would expect
with regard to this particular type of Mahāyāna manuscripts (with the
textual fields
demarcated by vertical lines, especially, not exclusively, at the edges and
string holes,
often along with illuminations and other forms of ornamentation).
And with the well-known breakdown of the Pāla-evolved underlying networks
and
organizational structures in support of specialized workshops for highly
skilled
manuscript production, a greater influx of professional specialists carrying
these skills into Nepal may be assumed around that time.

Including its bibliography, the recent publication in the series “Wiener
Studien
zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde” by Karen Weissenborn:
“Buchkunst aus Nālandā. Die Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā-Handschrift
in der Royal Asiatic Society / London (Ms. Hodgson 1) und ihre Stellung
in der Pāla-Buchmalerei des 11./12. Jahrhunderts”. Wien 2012 (WSTB No. 77)
(https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/cgi-bin/wstb/wstb.cgi?ID=
81&show_description=1)
may at least contextually contribute to provide you with relevant insights,
even while this period of manuscript production is being addressed
from a specific perspective.

Best wishes,

Hartmut Buescher
.

On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 11:58 AM, Walter Slaje via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> I am aware of Georg Bühler's
> "Über Lineale oder "Faulenzer" zur Herstellung von Manuskripten des
> westlichen und nördlichen Indien". In: Anzeiger der kaiserl. Akademie der
> Wissenschaften zu Wien, Philos.-hist. Cl. 34, 8 (1897), pp. 48-52.
>
> Kind regards,
> WS
>
> -----------------------------
> Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
> Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
> D-99425 Weimar
> Deutschland
>
> Ego ex animi mei sententia spondeo ac polliceor
> studia humanitatis impigro labore culturum et provecturum
> non sordidi lucri causa nec ad vanam captandam gloriam,
> sed quo magis veritas propagetur et lux eius, qua salus
> humani generis continetur, clarius effulgeat.
> Vindobonae, die XXI. mensis Novembris MCMLXXXIII.
>
> 2017-05-12 11:35 GMT+02:00 Péter-Dániel Szántó via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info>:
>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> I would like to try out an idea, especially since we have some black-belt
>> codicologists here.
>>
>> I noticed that in the mediaeval East Indian ms. corpus, we have a larger
>> amount of pre-lined mss. among those dated to Pāla regnal years than the
>> ones dated in the Nepalese style.
>>
>> Perhaps I should explain: by pre-lined I mean primarily two double lines
>> separating the margins and the string space(/s) on each side. Secondarily,
>> the guideline for the sūtra to help maintain lines parallel to the edges.
>> Something like this:
>>
>>
>> ​
>> My survey is not at all exhaustive, and, as I said before, this practice
>> is not unheard of in Nepal. However, it starts in the Pāla realm a little
>> before 1000 CE and continues steadily up to the very end, whereas in Nepal
>> it seems to begin only in the early 12th c. My hypothesis for the time
>> being is that the Nepalese were emulating this habit. Also note that the
>> script in these cases is usually what is referred to as 'rañjanā' or
>> simplified versions thereof. Ok, this last point sounds muddled, but I
>> think that the palaeography for this corpus is pretty weak.
>>
>> Any comments would be greatly appreciated, especially if you can point me
>> to some secondary literature on the subject.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Peter Szant2
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>> indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
>> committee)
>> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or
>> unsubscribe)
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
> committee)
> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or
> unsubscribe)
>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20170512/9404a76e/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: lined.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 81462 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20170512/9404a76e/attachment.jpg>