Pali Manuscripts

This thesis is strictly focused on the Theravāda Pāli "Milindapañha" (Chinese Translation-Nāgasena Bhiksu Sūtra"), mainly recorded in the middle of the second century BC, about five hundred years after The Buddha’s parinirvāna. Milindapañha is an ancient and much venerated book among the Buddhists. King Milinda ruled Northern India and he exchanged verbal conversations with elder monk Nāgesena on Buddhsit doctrine. The Milinda Pañha is a highly authoritative, post canonical Buddhist Pali text and it gives the account of details the philosophic and religious encounter between Greco-Bactrian king Milinda and wise monk bhikkhu Nāgasena. In their discussions, the king proposes a series of dilemmas based on points of Buddhist teachings which are then satisfied by the erudite responses of Nāgasena. This research supposes to maintain in depth knowledge and understanding on the Pali Milindapañha.

Abstract—Several catalogues of Pāli palm-leaf manuscript collections, preserved at the National Library of Thailand, have been published. These catalogues, however, are mere lists of titles and they do not record the number of physical manuscripts under each title. For instance, the Milindapañha (Questions of King Milinda) appears as a single entry in these catalogues, but, in fact, the library holds seventy copies. These seventy manuscripts, though not all are complete, are not necessarily direct copies of each other or of a single original exemplar: they are, rather, distinct recensions that were copied in different periods of Thai history. Therefore, they serve as a valuable repository for the study of the text’s diverse textual traditions to elucidate the background of its transmission. Moreover, there are other related works, like the Milindapañha-ṭīkā, the Milindapañha Saṅkhepa, and the Milindapañhagāthā, which is embedded in the Vaṃsamālinī. The last two are yet to be found outside Thailand. Thus, this short article aims to present a concise listing of them in the hope that they will facilitate further research into these texts.