Liu, Zhen. *Meditations and Asceticisms: On the discovery and study of Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts. Shanghai Guji Publishing House, 2010. 299 pp., 58 yuan. ISBN 9787532556670. [WorldCat]
刘震（著）《禅定与苦修—关于佛传原初梵本的发现和研究》上海古籍出版社
This book, as far as I am able to tell from internet gleanings (I’ve not seen it at the time of writing), is a revised and expanded (修订、增补) version of Zhen Liu’s PhD dissertation on a unique Sanskrit manuscript of the Kāyabhāvanāsūtra 《修身经》 of the Dīrghāgama submitted to Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Further information can be found in this startlingly rich Chinese writeup by an editor at a Chinese publishing house:
Hisataka Ishida. „Dharmottaras Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā zum auf der Realität basierenden logischen Nexus“. Ph. D. Dissertation, Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Universität Wien, 2011. [official site / PDF]
Vienna is producing dissertations on the pramāṇa manuscripts in China at an impressive rate. I note, however, that projects which might have been expected to showcase the cultural achievements of Tibet do not always turn out that way:
From the Abstract
Since the manuscript is a codex unicus, a diplomatic edition is also included, as is an edition of the Tibetan translation. The [necessity of including the] latter is due to the fact that, upon closer examination, it became apparent that the Tibetan translation shows frequent “deviations”, likely due to the free translation style of the Tibetan translator monk rNgog Lotsaba. These deviations cannot be briefly stated in the critical apparatus of the Sanskrit edition in a manner that would be meaningful for the reader, and thus this edition has been added.
Nika Jovic. The Cult of the ’Go ba’i lha lnga: A Study With Pictorial and Written Material of the Five Personal Deities. M. A. thesis, Universitat Wien, 2010. 148 pp. [official site / PDF]
This thesis contains editions and translations of several Tibetan ritual texts: the ’Go ba’i lha lnga’i bsangs mchod by Ku saʼ li dha rma ba dzra (A), the ’Go baʼi lha lngaʼi bsang chog by Ku sa li dha rma ba dzwa (B), the ’Go ba’i lha lnga’i bsangs chog by the Ku sa li dha rma ba dzra (C) ‘Go ba’i lha lnga’i bsangs mchod by Ku sa li dha rma bdzra (D), the ’Go ba’i lha lnga’i bsangs mchod by Su pra mi dha rma ba dzra (E), the Lha lngaʼi gsol mchod bsod nams dpal skyed by Zhor sngags smyon (F), the ’Go ba’i lha lnga’i gsol mchod bsang dang bcas pa yar ngoʼi zla rgyas zhes bya ba by Ka rma ngag dbang yon tan rgya mtsho (G), the ‘Go ba’i lha lnga’i gsol mchod phen bdeʼi ʻdod ʻjo zhes bya ba by bTsun gzugs bLo bzang chos kyi nyi ma (H) and others.
Pflanzen, die von Newars zur Gaṇeśacaturthī verwendet werden
Astrid Zotter (née Krause). ‘Pūjā-Blüten in Nepal: Bestimmungen des Puṣpacintāmaṇi‘. Universität Leipzig: PhD dissertation, 2009. [In German; PDF] 408 pp., illus.
Dr. Zotter’s dissertation on the medieval flower-offering manual Puṣpacintāmaṇi presents a critical edition of the Sanskrit and Newar texts, and discusses the role of this important work in Nepal from the reign of Pratap Malla onwards. This is a new milestone in Newar studies, and more generally another welcome contribution to the study of the transmission of Sanskrit texts and vernacular translations in medieval South Asia. A few words from the abstract (roughly translated):
From the Abstract
The Sanskrit text Puṣpacintāmaṇi (PuCi) treats flower offerings (upacāra) in the most important worship ritual of Hinduism, the pūjā. In 400 verses, about 200 names of flowers prescribed as appropriate or inappropriate gifts for various deities and pūjās are listed. The text is a compilation (nibandha), in which the contents of 47 named source texts are reported. […]
The aim of the thesis is not only to edit this text, which was published for the first time in 1966, anew on the basis of all traditional manuscripts and to translate it for the first time, but also to fit it into its context. Here, the context of the historical development of the text, the position of the PuCi in the textual tradition and the varieties of interpretation are taken into account. […] Continue reading “Zotter, ‘Pūjā-Blüten in Nepal’; on the Puṣpacintāmaṇi (2009)”
Andrey Klebanov. The *Nepalese Version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā and its Interrelation with Buddhism and the Buddhists. M. A. thesis, University of Hamburg, 2010. 223 pp.
Theodore Benke. The Śūdrācāraśiromaṇi of Kṛṣṇa Śeṣa: A 16th Century Manual of Dharma for Śūdras. PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2010. [abstract & official site / PDF]
From the abstract
“From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century C.E., a śāstra of a new type on the topic of Śūdras was composed and circulated among Dharmaśāstrins. […] Śūdradharma texts were one response of the Brahmin intellectual elite to the challenges to traditional dharma and dominance arising from the changing socio-economic conditions of Sultanate and Mughal India. They represent a shift in Dharmashastric discourse from the ritual exclusion of Śūdras as the sign of their social subjection to fuller integration into the Brahmanical fold. […] These śūdradharma texts were primarily concerned with the ritual life of Śūdras—the rites, sacraments, and forms of religious knowledge to which they were entitled in śruti and smṛti. But they also included expositions on the generation of Śūdra jātis according to the theory of varṇasaṅkara and descriptions of the ways of life and occupations of Śūdras. This is a study and translation of one of these texts, the Śūdrācāraśiromaṇi of Kṛṣṇa Śeṣa, among the most brilliant and eminent paṇḍits of late medieval Sanskrit, celebrated as both grammarian and poet.”
Peipina, Lita. The Piṃgalātreya sūtra of the (Mūla)sarvāstivādins: its edition and study. Investigation of the Piṃgalātreya sūtra’s status within the Dīrghāgama “Collection of Long (Discourses of the Buddha)”. MA diss., University of Oslo, 2008. 85 pp. [abstract/PDF]
Contains a diplomatic edition and critical edition of the Gandhāran MS discovered in 1999. Supervised by Jens Braarvig.Piṃgalātreya Gandhara MS
Liu, Zhen. *Meditations and Asceticisms: On the discovery and study of Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts. Shanghai Guji Publishing House, 2010. 299 pp., 58 yuan. ISBN 9787532556670. [WorldCat]
