Author: systemiksolutions

The site is a venue for researchers and developers engaged in the study of Gāndhārī Buddhist manuscripts and inscriptions, some of the oldest extant Buddhist documents, with the aim of developing digital scholarly editions. We use the READ and READ Workbench platforms to support collaborative editing, analysis and digital publishing. We produce open access studies of Gāndhārī manuscripts and inscriptions that provide a uniquely interactive, customizable and collaborative experience. Texts may be published on the site for scholarly review or as articles in the online Journal of Gandhāran Buddhist Texts, serving as digital companions to print publications such as journal articles and the Gandhāran Buddhist Texts Series or as stand-alone publications. 

The Robert Senior Collection consists of twenty-four birch bark scrolls containing at least forty-one Buddhist texts in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣthī script. Dating to the early second century CE, it is the largest extant collection of Gandhāran sūtras, or discourses of the Buddha, and thus provides invaluable information about the production and transmission of such texts during a period when Buddhist literature was spreading rapidly from Gandhāra to Central and East Asia. The collection and the pot in which it was discovered also shed light on an important Buddhist practice, the burial and veneration of manuscripts as relics at stūpa sites, which were the ritual centres of Buddhism in ancient South Asia. 

The reports of the earlier Chinese travellers record a Gandhāra resplendent with stupas and monasteries and a Buddhism which might reasonably be characterized as a relic cult. Evidence for the practice of relic establishment is consistent and ubiquitous. Indeed, relic establishment might be understood as perhaps the most significant element of Buddhist religious culture in the Gandhāran region at least in the period covered by the inscription record. Relic inscriptions are central to our understanding of the ritual practice of relic establishment.  They are highly formulaic and, located at the nexus of state and monastic hegemony, might be characterized as truly foundational artefacts. Relic inscriptions might be seen to be comparable, if not exceeding, Aśokan inscriptions in terms of their civilization defining normative significance. 

The Schist Buddha Triad (year 5) first appeared in Oriental Art in the spring of 1973 and was subsequently purchased by the Belgian art collector Claude de Marteau. Based on de Marteau’s place of residence this object was referred to as the “Brussels Buddha”. The significance of the piece to Gandharan art and South Asian history was highlighted in two articles published in 1974, one by Gérard Fussman and the other by J.C. Harle. Harle noted, “it is obvious that the emergence of the icon from Year 5, an elaborate composition of a well-known type, of the finest workmanship and style, is a most important event” (1974, 132). The piece was part of two exhibitions, Light of Asia: Buddha Sakyamuni in Asian Art (1984-85) and Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India (1985-86). In 1990, it was purchased by a private Japanese collector. The piece was displayed in the Gandharan Art and Bamiyan Site exhibit (2007-08). In 2020 the Schist Buddhist Triad Year 5 was sold at auction by Christie’s and is currently on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

For scholars of Gandharan Art, the piece is notable for both its style and iconography. Stylistically, the sculpture depicts the Buddha seated on a lotus-throne under a leafy canopy flanked by Bodhisattvas and deities above his shoulders. The Buddha and bodhisattvas form a triad, a composition similar to sculptures from Sahri Bahlol and Charsadda, sites located in the Peshawar Basin of contemporary Pakistan, which comprised the heartland of ancient Gandhara. The Sahri Bahlol triad is very similar in composition to this piece, the main difference being the bodhisattvas are reversed (Guy 2022, 98). These stylistic comparisons are significant because it’s exact provenance is unknown; there is no information about the piece prior to its appearance in Oriental Art in 1973. As is often the case, this sculpture most likely emerged on the art market after being looted from a Buddhist site in Pakistan some time prior to this date.\ 

The Robert Senior Collection consists of twenty-four birch bark scrolls containing at least forty-one Buddhist texts in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣthī script. Dating to the early second century CE, it is the largest extant collection of Gandhāran sūtras, or discourses of the Buddha, and thus provides invaluable information about the production and transmission of such texts during a period when Buddhist literature was spreading rapidly from Gandhāra to Central and East Asia. The collection and the pot in which it was discovered also shed light on an important Buddhist practice, the burial and veneration of manuscripts as relics at stūpa sites, which were the ritual centres of Buddhism in ancient South Asia.

ANUBhasha, playing on the Sanskrit word for ‘conversation’, is a collective of scholars of premodern South Asia, working at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. This group works to promote the usage of digital tools to engage scholarly and cultural communities in the study and use of manuscripts and literature. Currently, this includes several long-term projects focusing on different linguistic and cultural communities of the South Asian past.  Although divergent in time and methods, these projects all consider how the study of South Asian texts, literature, and culture can be enhanced by combining: (1) community input and engagement, (2) academic study and rigour, and (3) digital frameworks and technology. These goals are informed by the collaborator’s joint roles as researchers and educators.