GÄndhÄrÄ« language
The Gandhari is a middle Indian language or dialect that was in use until the 4th century AD in the northwest of the Indian cultural area, in Gandhara, at least in the period of the 1st century BC. Usually it was written in the Kharoshthi font. The special significance of this dialect is that it is the language of the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts and perhaps the oldest Indian written language at all, after all, began in the period specified above until the textualization orally so far of traditional teachings. The Buddhists were in a sense the forerunner of this new approach. In the same period, the current state of research, according to the falls formation of new soteriological flow of the Mahayana. The exploration of all correspondence corpus of Gandhari, which is currently mainly driven in a long-term project of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich, can be especially new insights into this important epoch in the history of Buddhism hope for.
The history of the naming
1943 beat the English linguist Sir Harold Walter Bailey the term Gandhari first to propose to name the dialect, which had previously been called " Northwestern Prakrit ". In his view, would be under this term include the following documents have been: the inscriptions of the Indian emperor Ashoka in Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra, known as Khotan Dharmapada, a collection of found in the Niya documents and other scattered evidence of this Middle Indian dialect in other languages . This definition had to be revised since 1994, especially since the discovery of numerous manuscripts (next to the Khotan Dharmapada only known up to then ). Today's interpretation of the term is based mainly on the work in which the Gandhari documents are usually written, the Karoshthi. But even this definition has its exceptions. So at least two fragments are obtained which are written in more or less classical Sanskrit. After all, no examples of documents are known so far that would have been written as though Karoshthi in the Gandhari language, but in a different font.
The Gandhari script corpus
Based on these considerations a Gandhari corpus is given as follows:
- Inscriptions: more than 500, starting with the Ashoka inscriptions in Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra, spanning the period from 250 BC to the 3rd century AD, stone and metal as support materials
- Coin legends: discovered by the Gandhara core area to Central Asia, 2nd century BC to 2nd AD, several dynasties use the Gandhari ( Sakas, Parthians and Kushans ), often with bilingual legends in Gandhari and Greek, why the coins played a special role in decoding the Karoshthi by James Prinsep, especially in the 1830s
- Buddhist manuscripts: over 200 fragments in 8 collections, 1st century BC to the 3rd century AD, on birch bark and palm leaf
- Documents of secular content: Law and administrative texts, almost 1000 finds, written on wood, leather or other materials, 2nd - 7th Century AD
End of Gandhari and their role as a translation template
The Gandhari period ended at the latest, when it was replaced by Sanskrit as a written language. In 500 AD, the Gandhari came seemingly completely forgotten. The major native language research in India it is ineffective - a fact that is difficult to understand from today's perspective, given the initially described the crucial role played in Buddhism the Gandhari, the yes its part, was able to survive the times. This had been possible, inter alia, that contemporary Buddhist pilgrims retraced their religion to the origins and anfertigten translations of existing texts in their own languages. Here, too, seems the Gandhari a key role to be approached. Perhaps the template for the important Chinese version of the Prajnaparamita Ashtasahasrika was written by Lokaksema in that language. Lokakshemas text from the end of the 2nd century AD, had been considered before the discovery of Gandhari manuscripts as the earliest evidence of Mahayana Buddhism.