The Buddhist Manuscripts at Gilgit

Summary

Among the most significant manuscript discoveries of the twentieth century are the Buddhist texts unearthed at Gilgit, near the upper Indus River. This article focuses on a birch‑bark manuscript written in Gupta‑style script that contains the Bhaisajyaguru‑nāma Mahāyāna‑sūtra and related texts. The author describes the physical features of the manuscript: forty‑one leaves written on both sides, with five lines per leaf and clear calligraphy. He compares the script with that of earlier manuscripts from Gilgit and notes similarities that allow a rough dating to the fifth or sixth century. The article then discusses the title and content of the sutra. In the Sanskrit manuscript it is called Bhaisajyaguru Nāma Mahāyāna Sūtra, while Tibetan translations refer to it as Arya‑Bhagavato‑Bhaisajyaguru‑Vaidurya‑Prabha‑Rāja‑Pūrva‑Pranidhāna Viśeṣa‑Vistara Nāma Mahāyāna Sūtra. The sutra describes the vows made by seven Buddhas, particularly Bhaisajyaguru (the Medicine Buddha), to heal beings and to enable them to attain enlightenment. The author translates portions of the text and compares them with Chinese and Tibetan versions, observing both shared passages and unique expansions. He also summarises the narrative, which includes descriptions of the Medicine Buddha’s pure land, the role of bodhisattvas and a concluding discussion on the suitability of the sutra’s title. The article situates the manuscript within the wider corpus of Mahāyāna literature and notes that its discovery enriches our understanding of how Buddhist scriptures were transmitted and adapted across linguistic boundaries. The study concludes that the Gilgit manuscripts are invaluable for establishing the history of Buddhist texts. They provide early Sanskrit witnesses to works previously known only in translation and reveal the diversity of Mahāyāna Buddhism in the Gupta period.