Yamari's Pramanavarttikalankaratika Suparisuddha (diplomatic and critical editions, partial translation and studies)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Eliahu Franco
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2014 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 253118915

The extensive commentary of Yamari on the Pramanavarttikalankara (hereafter PVA) by Prajñakaragupta (ca. 750-810), the Pramanavarttikalankaratika Suparisuddha (hereafter Suparisuddha), composed in ca. 1050 CE, has long been considered to have been lost in the original Sanskrit and was available only in a Tibetan translation, whose understanding is sometimes marred by insuperable philological problems. Only recently has it become known that a single manuscript of this work is preserved, a copy of which is kept at the China Tibetology Research Center (CTRC), Beijing. Owing to an agreement between the Institute of South and Central Asian Studies, Leipzig University, and the CTRC, the applicant and the two scheduled project researchers, Dr. Chu and Dr. Li, have been granted access to this sensational find. The manuscript covers the commentary on the Pramanasiddhi chapter of the PVA, which we propose to edit both diplomatically and critically, together with a translation and study of selected passages on Buddhist philosophy of religion. The evidence of the manuscript will not only allow us to study the work of the important Buddhist commentator and philosopher Yamari for the first time in its original language, but will also significantly add to the evidence for the text of the PVA. The project will thus fulfil several purposes: 1) it will provide a new basis for understanding the oeuvre of an important Buddhist commentator and philosopher through the editio princeps of the Sanskrit original of the Suparisuddha; 2) it will be the first attempt to recover significant parts of thought of Yamari through a translation and study of selected passages where Yamari considerably digresses from the literal explanation of the PVA (see our preliminary work in Attachment 5); 3) it will provide a much needed, long-missed tool for understanding one of the most important works of the Buddhist epistemological tradition, the PVA; 4) it will present significant improvements to the Sanskrit text of the PVA, especially in the part that is available only in the edition of Sankrtyayana, but also in the part that has been re-edited by Ono. As an ancillary purpose 5), the project will also contribute to a better understanding of the earlier commentary on the PVA by Jayanta, who is often quoted, paraphrased and criticized in the Suparisuddha (see fragments in Attachment 7 below).In addition, the project represents a further important step in the international cooperation with the CTRC. The openness of the CTRC to such cooperation is decisive for the development of Buddhist Studies in the decades to come: gaining access to the unique Sanskrit manuscripts available in the CTRC is of cardinal importance for the understanding of the history of Buddhism in South Asia, especially in its later and last phases.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants