[INDOLOGY] Gandhari Manuscript Project

[Stefan Baums]

Dear Andrew,

I am not part of Mark’s new project, but have been working on
several of these manuscripts as they have been emerging since
2002, and can maybe add some clarifications to your questions.

Unfortunately, not a single one of the many Gāndhārī manuscripts
that have come to light since the 1990s has been the product of
proper archeological excavation, and this “assemblage” (multiple
collections, possibly multiple findspots) is no exception. To my
knowledge, the dealer-collectors involved are mostly Pakistani,
but there is reason to think that at least some of the manuscripts
originate in Afghanistan (cf. Salomon 2020 [“Where are the
Gandharan Sūtras?”], 179: “allegedly an ‘old’ collection belonging
to an unnamed party in Kabul”). It is to be hoped that now this
particular collection is in a public institution, there will also
be an opportunity to conduct provenance research on it.

I believe, as you seem to do, that photographs of such material
should be made universally accessible in a timely fashion, rather
than restricting access to “qualified scholars.” Manuscripts like
these are part of the world’s shared heritage, after all, and
there is a wide variety of interest in them beyond the production
of the ultimate scholarly edition, including religious curiosity
and worship, and even uses that may seem frivolous to us – like
basing art projects on them or putting reproductions on coffee
mugs – are legitimate. The Library of Congress showed the way when
it recently put its scroll from the same assemblage online for the
global public:

   https://www.loc.gov/item/2018305008

(with the ultimate scholarly edition of it still in progress). It
is to be hoped that the Islamabad Museum will follow suit.

Meanwhile, Andrew Glass and I have been documenting this
manuscript assemblage since the first part of it became known in
2002 in our Catalog of Gāndhārī Texts under (so far) the following
entries:

   University of Washington Libraries:

      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0260

   Library of Congress:

      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0261
      
   Islamabad Museum:

      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0282
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0292
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0293
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0294
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0295
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0296
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0297
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0298
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0299
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0300
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0301

   Private collection in Pakistan:

      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0367
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0368
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0369
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0370
      https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0371

We look very much forward to more information becoming available
now that almost all the manuscripts in question are held in public
institutions.

All best wishes,
Stefan

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