The Bhaikṣukī Manuscript of the Candrālaṃkāra
Study, Script Tables, and Facsimile Edition

By Dragomir Dimitrov

Cambridge, Mass. 2010
Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 72

This volume discusses the Bhaikṣukī manuscript of the Candrālaṃkāra (“Ornament of the Moon”), a commentarial treatise of the twelfth century based on the Cāndravyākaraṇa (fifth century), Candragomin’s seminal Buddhist grammar of Sanskrit. The book offers an overview of the discovery of the Bhaikṣukī script, along with a description of all available written sources. The detailed study of the fragmentary codex unicus of the Candrālaṃkāra is accompanied by a facsimile edition and extensive tables of the Bhaikṣukī script. The Buddhist author of the commentary has been identified for the first time, and the nature of his treatise and its position in the Cāndra school of grammar have been expounded. The history of the manuscript and newly discovered traces of the Bhaikṣukī script in Tibet have also been discussed. This publication will serve as a prolegomenon for the preparation of a critical edition of the Candrālaṃkāra, which until now was believed to have been lost irretrievably.

The Bhaikṣukī Manuscript of the Candrālaṃkāra will appeal to specialists with interests in a variety of fields such as Indian palaeography, grammar, Buddhism, history, and Indo-Tibetan studies.