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J A Silk

Universiteit Leiden, LIAS, Faculty Member
The Śrīmālādevīsiṁhanādanirdeśasūtra is preserved in toto in one Tibetan and two Chinese translations, in addition to which we have access to a fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript and a considerable number of Sanskrit quotations, contributing... more
The Śrīmālādevīsiṁhanādanirdeśasūtra is preserved in toto in one Tibetan and two Chinese translations, in addition to which we have access to a fragmentary Sanskrit manuscript and a considerable number of Sanskrit quotations, contributing to a sizable amount of the text now being available in Sanskrit. The present contribution takes as its impetus a recent contribution on the sūtra and its ideas about tathāgatagarbha, offering a survey of the state of the field of study of the text in its Indian context, and several suggestions for improved understandings.
The *Kāśyapaparivarta, an early Mahāyāna sūtra, has a complex history. Sanskrit and Tibetan versions, and some of its Chinese translations, have been available to scholars for almost a century, thanks to Staël-Holstein's 1926 editio... more
The *Kāśyapaparivarta, an early Mahāyāna sūtra, has a complex history. Sanskrit and Tibetan versions, and some of its Chinese translations, have been available to scholars for almost a century, thanks to Staël-Holstein's 1926 editio princeps. Yet no comprehensive survey of available sources, or critical appraisal of their antecedants, has been published, and most importantly, essential Chinese materials have long been overlooked. The present contribution focuses most centrally on the Chinese translations of the scripture. In addition, the relation of the sūtra to the Mahāratnakūṭa collection of forty-nine texts and the possible Indic origins of the latter are explored.
Many issues are raised by thinking about "The Idea of Text in Buddhism." This paper concentrates on scriptures of Indian Buddhism, and considers some of the questions raised or inspired by the papers presented at the 2019 Jerusalem... more
Many issues are raised by thinking about "The Idea of Text in Buddhism." This paper concentrates on scriptures of Indian Buddhism, and considers some of the questions raised or inspired by the papers presented at the 2019 Jerusalem conference on "The Idea of Text in Buddhism." Consideration is given among other topics to multilingualism, in which context a comparison is offered with the traditions of the Targums in Jewish literature.
The Lalitavistara is one of the most influential hagiographies of the Buddha. It has been known in Sanskrit since the early days of modern studies of Buddhism, but was long available only in inadequate editions. That has now changed with... more
The Lalitavistara is one of the most influential hagiographies of the Buddha. It has been known in Sanskrit since the early days of modern studies of Buddhism, but was long available only in inadequate editions. That has now changed with the publication of the edition of K. Hokazono, now complete in three volumes. The present paper discusses something of the history of the study of the text, Hokazono's edition, and another recent book by G. Ducoeur that deals with the text, as well as touching on a contribution by Xi He on the poetics of the text. It includes a concordance of a recent translation from Tibetan published by the 84000 project, aligning its sections with the Sanskrit editions of Lefmann and Hokazono.
The past decade has seen the appearance of a number of Chinese publications relevant to the readership of the Indo-Iranian Journal. This article briefly introduces some of those publications, dealing mostly with Buddhist sources,... more
The past decade has seen the appearance of a number of Chinese publications relevant to the readership of the Indo-Iranian Journal. This article briefly introduces some of those publications, dealing mostly with Buddhist sources, primarily in Sanskrit, Khotanese and Middle Indic.
The works attributed to Homer, folktales, Rabbinic literature and Buddhist scriptures share the feature that they all lack an Ur-text, an originary core. How are we to understand the nature of such literature, and how are we to edit it in... more
The works attributed to Homer, folktales, Rabbinic literature and Buddhist scriptures share the feature that they all lack an Ur-text, an originary core. How are we to understand the nature of such literature, and how are we to edit it in a fashion that does not impose a unitary perspective onto what is inherently diverse and fluid? The ERC-funded Open Philology project is building a digital environment within which to edit Buddhist scriptures. This paper introduces the problem of fluid texts, sketches how reflections on Rabbinic and Biblical literature shed light on it, and outlines the approach being taken by our team to our multilingual corpora of Buddhist materials.
A new volume, Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism (2018), collects essays on questions related to the origins of the Mahāyāna Buddhist movement. This review article considers the contributions, and offers a few... more
A new volume, Setting Out on the Great Way: Essays on Early Mahāyāna Buddhism (2018), collects essays on questions related to the origins of the Mahāyāna Buddhist movement. This review article considers the contributions, and offers a few observations on the state of the field.
A review article on Willem Bollée, A Cultural Encyclopaedia of the Kathāsa- ritsāgara in Keywords: Complementary to Norman Penzer’s General Index on Charles Tawney’s Translation [Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis 8]. Halle an... more
A review article on Willem Bollée, A Cultural Encyclopaedia of the Kathāsa- ritsāgara in Keywords: Complementary to Norman Penzer’s General Index on Charles Tawney’s Translation [Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis 8]. Halle an der Saale: Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg, 2015, 513 pp. isbn 978-3- 86977-123-6. € 98,00. Supplemented by Willem Bollée, “Addenda et Corrigenda to ‘Bollée, Willem B., Cultural Encyclopaedia of the Kathāsaritsāgara.’” Zeit- schrift für Indologie und Südasienstudien 32/33 (2015/2016): 175–202.
Indian Buddhist literary sources contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination. However, they also provide ample evidence for, possibly subconscious, discriminatory attitudes... more
Indian Buddhist literary sources contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination. However, they also provide ample evidence for, possibly subconscious, discriminatory attitudes toward out-castes, prototypically caṇḍālas. The rhetoric found in Indian Buddhist literature regarding caṇḍālas is examined in this paper.
Pelliot tibétain 153 is a short Tibetan document containing a poem of 155 lines, being a prayer for the rebirth of a deceased person in the Pure Land of Amitābha. In so far as is known, it is a unique manuscript. It is here edited,... more
Pelliot tibétain 153 is a short Tibetan document containing a poem of 155 lines, being a prayer for the rebirth of a deceased person in the Pure Land of Amitābha. In so far as is known, it is a unique manuscript. It is here edited, provided with an English translation and a Commentary, in which some of the possible sources of the work are suggested. The work seems to be indebted to Chinese conceptions and formulations, although there is no evidence that it is a translation. It thus constitutes part of the body of materials, probably composed in Dunhuang, related to what much later and far away became understood as Pure Land Buddhism.
The Praśnottararatnamālikā is a small tract containing 62 questions, paired with their answers. It is extraordinary that this text has been transmitted within Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist traditions, in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tibetan,... more
The Praśnottararatnamālikā is a small tract containing 62 questions, paired with their answers. It is extraordinary that this text has been transmitted within Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist traditions, in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tibetan, variously attributed to different authors. The present study examines what is known of the text, which from early on drew the attention of modern scholars, and presents editions of its Sanskrit and Tibetan versions, along with a translation and annotations.
A study of an early manuscript fragment of the Wenshushili Puchao sanmei jing 文殊師利普超三昧經 last seen in a private collection in Kalamazoo. The paper provides a transcription of the manuscript, a discussion of its palaeographic features and... more
A study of an early manuscript fragment of the Wenshushili Puchao sanmei jing 文殊師利普超三昧經 last seen in a private collection in Kalamazoo. The paper provides a transcription of the manuscript, a discussion of its palaeographic features and photographs of the original.
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724 was earlier identified as a list of virtues of the Buddha Amitābha. A new reading of the document and identification of its Chinese source allow its re-identification instead as a list of the virtues of invoking the Buddha Amitābha in... more
724 was earlier identified as a list of virtues of the Buddha Amitābha. A new reading of the document and identification of its Chinese source allow its re-identification instead as a list of the virtues of invoking the Buddha Amitābha in a loud voice. The article offers a corrected transcription of the manuscript, presents and examines possible sources, and suggests the most plausible proximate original for the Tibetan translation, briefly exploring the practice of loud invoca-tion as a Buddhist practice in medieval Dunhuang.
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Published in MANUSCRIPTS IN THE SCHØYEN COLLECTION BUDDHIST MANUSCRIPTS Volume IV
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And 45 more

A list of corrections to my recently published book. Oops...
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Open Access edition
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