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@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@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

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