[INDOLOGY] Crowdfunding for Gandhari manuscripts

[Stefan Baums]

Dear Mark,

thank you for your post – this is very interesting, both the
material and the crowdfunding experiment!

I have three questions about the two scrolls and the plans you
have for them:

   1. How extensive are the preserved texts? Some other fragments
      of the Pratyutpannabuddhasaṃmukhāvasthitasamādhisūtra scroll
      were just published in JIABS

         Harrison, Paul, Timothy Lenz and Richard Salomon. 2018.
         “Fragments of a Gāndhārī Manuscript of the
         Pratyutpannabuddhasaṃmukhāvasthitasamādhisūtra (Studies
         in Gāndhārī Manuscripts 1).” Journal of the International
         Association of Buddhist Studies 41: 117–143.

      but those amount to a total of only eleven partial lines:

         https://gandhari.org/a_manuscript.php?catid=CKM0294

      Are the new fragments more substantial? Concerning the
      Samādhirājasūtra, only the left half of the scroll appears
      to be preserved, i.e., half of each line will be missing.
      How many lines are in that fragment?

   2. Which concrete tasks do you plan to use the funding you
      raise for – research assistants, travel, equipment? The
      crowdfunding description only has a very general reference
      to “research, consulting and resources.”

   3. Images of these two scrolls in their rolled‐up state (like
      the one you show on your page) were circulated fifteen years
      ago by a London‐based art dealer looking for a buyer. Are
      the scrolls with you in Sydney now? Did you buy them?

All best,
Stefan

-- 
Stefan Baums, Ph.D.
Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität München