Publications

Monographs, critical editions and proceedings for classical Indian, Buddhist and Chinese studies

South Indian Epigraphy and Art History

In October 2017, an international symposium was held in Paris as a tribute to Noboru Karashima who gave a new impetus to the study of South Indian and Tamil epigraphy.The contributions to this volume illustrate the wide range of related topics in the fields of archæology, epigraphy and history of art that were presented at the symposium. These domains, an integral part of classical studies, have generally been considered as distinct areas of research, however nobody can deny their mutual interdependence. The title of this volume ‘Whispering of Inscriptions’ is borrowed from one of Karashima’s publications.Karashima, who himself was convinced of ‘the importance of epigraphy in the task of historical reconstruction,’ had ‘noticed a defect in past studies in the field of socio-economic history, due to the arbitrary use of epigraphic evidence.’Karashima was of the view that historians should avoid arbitrary judgements and concluded his essay by saying … [Preface]

Murugaiyan, Appasamy & Parlier-Renault, Édith (2021) (Eds) Whispering of Inscriptions: South Indian Epigraphy and Art History. (2 vols)

sKyes pa rabs kyi gleṅ gźi (Jātakanidāna)

The current project focuses on the Tibetan translation of the Jātakanidāna ‘Prologue to the Jātaka’ and is intended to present that text, its contents and sources, by means of several different approaches. The Jātakanidāna is the first attempt by the Pāli textual tradition to provide a biography of the life of the Buddha Gotama. Like the parallel works found in the early biographies of other schools, it is an incomplete biography, and does not record the entire life story of Gotama. This Pāli biography was compiled in Śri Lanka during the fifth century AD, using verses from canonical texts, commentaries on these verses, and other commentarial traditions recounting the life of the Buddha. It is, therefore, a highly composite literary work, that is formed from a wide variety of sources into a unitary narrative text. The Tibetan translation of this Pāli text was made in the early part of the fourteenth century. … [Project]

Chinese Calligraphy and Early Buddhist Manuscripts

The earliest extant Chinese Buddhist manuscript the Buddhasaṅgīti-sūtra was excavated at Toyuq in Turfan. It is dated the 6th year of the Yuankang era (296 CE) during the Western Jin Dynasty (266–316 CE). This sūtra is a copy by Zhu Fashou, one of Dharmarakṣa's monk disciples, a distinctive scribe on the translation team. Both historical documentation and archæological findings of the period when Buddhism was initially transmitted into China demonstrate that the copying of Buddhist texts by monk scribes from Central Asia played a key role. The work of these scribes also enhanced the creation of diverse and vigorous calligraphic styles from the 3rd to 5th centuries. However, before the 20th century, early Buddhist scribes or foreign scribes were little known in the history of Chinese calligraphy, or in official records. … [Abstract]

Tsui, Chung-hui 崔中慧 (2020) Chinese Calligraphy and Early Buddhist Manuscripts.