Gilgit, 1931: the day the Sanskrit sūtra turned up
Birch-bark manuscripts hidden in a mound in northern Pakistan gave the world the oldest known Sanskrit version of the Medicine Buddha Sūtra.
In 1931, near Gilgit in what is now northern Pakistan, manuscripts turned up by chance in an earthen mound at Naupur, believed to be a stūpa. Sheets of birch bark, written in Sanskrit, some in good condition. The authorities took charge, an excavation followed in 1938, and it soon became clear that this was a buried Buddhist library.
A mountain library
Gilgit then lay on a route between Kashmir, Central Asia and Tibet. The manuscripts contain Mahāyāna sūtras, monastic discipline texts and protective spells. They are generally dated to the sixth to seventh centuries from the script. They are now kept in India, at the National Archives in New Delhi.
The Medicine Buddha Sūtra
Among these texts is the Bhaiṣajyaguru-sūtra, in several copies. In Nalinaksha Dutt’s edition (Gilgit Manuscripts, published from 1939), three manuscripts are distinguished: one of three leaves, two almost complete. One of them is close to the Tibetan version. For specialists it is an important milestone: it confirms that the text circulated in Sanskrit before the great Chinese translations of Xuanzang (650) and Yijing (707), and it is a base for comparing versions.
Why it is still discussed
- It is material proof of transmission along mountain routes.
- Differences between the Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese versions let scholars follow how the text evolved.
- The leaves are fragile and their study continues.
To read on
The story of the translations is in the Medicine Master Sūtra, and the list of vows in the twelve vows in detail.
Uncertainties
The exact circumstances of the discovery are told in several ways; the dates of the manuscripts rest on study of the script and remain approximate.
Sources
Nalinaksha Dutt (ed.), Gilgit Manuscripts, vol. I, Srinagar, 1939; “On and around the Gilgit Manuscripts in the National Archives of India” (Totetsu, Taishō University journal); Wellcome Collection catalogue record; ANU Open Research Repository, “The Bhaiṣajyaguru-Sūtra and the Buddhism of Gilgit”.
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