Buddhist philosophical and religious literature

The opening of the first access to copies of the Sanskrit manuscripts from the 8th to 14th centuries CE that still exist in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of the PRC will have far-reaching results for the study of Buddhist philosophy and religion. The present project focuses on a number of major works of important Indian philosophers whose texts were assumed lost in their original Sanskrit and which were available until now only in their Tibetan and/or Chinese translations. The planned work is divided according to the following literary groups: A) Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Epistemological, B) Yogacara, C) Abhidharma, D) Mahayanasutra, E) Tantristic, F) Tibetan Historical literature. The selection of texts has been determined by their importance within the Buddhist traditions and by their circumstantial availability. While work on the epistemological tradition will focus on critically editing as well as on historical studies, translations, and analyses as well as systematic interpretations, the main aim of work on texts from the other traditions will be to provide the scholarly world with careful first critical editions of the available texts as quickly as possible. This work will be accompanied by the preparation of an "on-line" catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the TAR and further efforts towards the recovers of this material from the TAR. From among the 29 different works proposed, the most important are the editions of: 1) Jinendra-buddhi`s Pramanasamuccayatika, 2) Dharmakirti`s Pramanaviniscaya and Hetubindu, 3) Vasubandhu`s Pancaskandhakaprakarana, 4) Sthiramati`s Pancaskandhakavibhasa and Tattvarthavyakhya, 5) Twenty short Mahayanasutras, 6) Samayavajra`s and Abhayakaragupta`s Pancakrama-commentaries. Translations are planned for: 1) Dignaga`s Pramanasamuccaya(vrtti), Chapter 5 on concept and language, 2) the logical sections of Dharmakirti`s earliest work, the *Hetuprakarana, and of his Pramanaviniscaya, Chapter 3 on proof. Two monographs are planned: 1) an analysis and history of the interpretations of yogic, i.e., supra-normal perception in the classical period of Buddhist philosophy, 2) an interpretation of Dharmakirti`s religious philosophy. These volumes both target a wider audience.

The project`s task was twofold: breaking new ground concerning the Indian and Tibetan tradition of epistemology and logic, in continuation of projects funded by the FWF since the early 1980s, and, as a result of the access since 2004 to manuscript collections in Tibet, providing the scholarly community, as quickly as possible, with critical editions of original Sanskrit texts for which only Tibetan and/or Chinese translations had been available until now. The latter task extended the range of literature being worked on in the project to Mahayanasutras, Scholastics, Tantra, and Hymns. In 2008, a panel `On Sanskrit Manuscripts in China - State and Prospects`, organized in Beijing with international participation, openly addressed the issue of this unique cultural treasure in Tibet for the first time within the PR of China. As a result of this meeting and its proceedings (1.a.3.13), a first more general opening of access has been achieved, and the availability of the whole treasure in facsimile can be expected in the near future. The series `Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region`, jointly founded by Beijing and Vienna and published in Beijing, reached Nr.9, and further volumes are under preparation. The agreement between the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Tibetan Research Center, Beijing, was extended until January 2013. Twenty monographs (studies, editions, annotated translations, proceedings, Festschrift) and 61 articles testify to the original and successful work of the group of scholars involved in the project. With the publication of Chapter 3 (`On Proof`), the critical edition of Dharmakirti`s Pramanaviniscaya has been completed. Other highlights are the publication of the Adhyardhasatika, a text of fundamental importance for Japanese Buddhism, of twenty hitherto mostly unknown short Mahayanasutras, and of Vasubandhu`s Pancaskandhaka, as well as the proceedings of the `Conference on Yogic Perception, Meditation, and Altered States of Consciousness`, the `Fourth International Dharmakirti Conference`, and the panel on `Early Tibetan Scholasticism`. Numerous specific studies are devoted to the philosophy of religion in late Indian Buddhism, the reception of Buddhist epistemology in Tibet, to opening single new sources, to translations, and to explanations of systematic thought, synchronically as well as diachronically. With the support of the FWF, it was possible to augment the small group of permanent research fellows at the Academy`s institute with four experienced international specialists, as well as to continue the training of young Chinese scholars and to collaborate internationally with relevant scholars and research teams. In this way a firm basis has been provided for the fruitful development of future research in view of the new material that has become available and of the perspectives this opens.