On the more general question of the transmission of Sanskrit knowledge to Baghdad in the eighth century, I consider van Bladel's 2011 study to be a breakthrough in understanding several key issues about this historical moment.

van Bladel, Kevin Thomas. 2011. ‘The Bactrian Background of the Barmakids’, in Islam and Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes, Islam and Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes, ed. by Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett, and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (Farnham: Ashgate), pp. 43–88

In particular, van Bladel establishes that the patriarch of the "Pramukha" family of the Navavihāra in Balkh (who became the "Barmacids" in Baghdad) was a Bactrian-speaker who was educated in śāstric Sanskrit in Kashmir.  

My recent paper "From Balkh to Baghdad"

Wujastyk, Dominik. 2016. ‘From Balkh to Baghdad. Indian Science and the Birth of the Islamic Golden Age in the Eighth Century’, Indian Journal of the History of Science, Indian Journal of the History of Science, 51.4: 679–90 <https://doi.org/10.16943/ijhs/2016/v51/i4/41244>

available at academia.edu, discusses some of these transmissions. 

It may be that we should be looking specifically into Bactrian literary remains for materials on the Buddha that might have become available in Baghdad through the transmissions under Khalid al-Barmaki and his descendants. 

Best,
Dominik


​
--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk
​,​

Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
​,​

University of Alberta, Canada
​.​

South Asia at the U of A:
 
​sas.ualberta.ca​
​​


On 1 March 2017 at 10:11, Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
...early centuries CE

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études,
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago


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