Continuing Study on the Two Newfound Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts of an Important Philosophical Oeuvre Attributed to Jitāri: Completing the Unfinished Editorial Works and Conducting Further Historical-philosophical Studies of Selected Chapters

• Applicant: Junjie Chu, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Asian Studies ; History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460693294

It has been known for some time that a large number of rare Sanskrit manuscripts are preserved in Lhasa. Those which contain the most important Buddhist philosophical works, were photographed in 1987 and the photocopies are kept in the China Tibetology Research Center, Beijing. However, access to these documents remains highly restricted. The applicant is therefore fortunate to have been granted access to two manuscripts (112+55 leaves) which contain a very important work of the philosopher Jitāri (ca. A.D. 940-980), called “[Collection of] Topics of Debate” (vādasthānāni). This work consists of twenty-two systematic expositions, a large number of them hitherto completely unknown. The proposed project will be carried out on the basis of these two manuscripts.Jitāri is a renowned Buddhist philosopher who exercised a strong influence on the later period of the history of the Indian Buddhist philosophy. Various topics are discussed in different chapters of his Vādasthānāni, such as negation of the existence of the universal, negation of the existence of God, proof the momentariness, proof of non-existence of Self, proof of the omniscience of the Buddha, etc. All these topics are subjects of long-lasting debates between the Buddhist, Brahmanical and Jaina philosophers. However, until recently our knowledge of Jitāri has been very scant. Therefore, the value of these newly available materials cannot be overstated; they will substantially enrich our knowledge not only of Jitāri's thought, but also of his historical and philosophical relationship to other authors, and will thus allow for a better understanding of the later period of Indian Buddhist philosophy in South Asia.In the previous phase of the project conducted by Prof. Eli Franco, a draft of diplomatic edition of the whole text and a critical edition of two chapters were prepared by the present applicant. The goal of the proposed extension of the project is to complete the unfinished editorial work, i.e., to revise and finalize the draft of the diplomatic edition, and to critically edit the further chapters to finish the critical edition of the whole text. On the basis of the critical edition, a historical-philosophical study of some selected chapters will be conducted. The result is expected to be published in the series of "Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region" by China Tibetology Research Center and Austrian Academy of Science, Beijing-Vienna.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants