A Gandhari Abhidharma Text

Winner of the 2025 Toshihide Numata Book Award in Buddhism, sponsored by the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley

Early Buddhist manuscript recording a previously unknown scholastic text about existence

This volume offers a transcription, edition, translation, and analysis of a previously unknown scholastic text, an important discovery for scholars of early Indian Buddhist doctrine. British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 28, from the first or second century CE and written in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, provides critical insight into the early development of Buddhist thought, particularly concerning the existence of past, present, and future factors. The text critiques Sarvāstivāda arguments that “everything exists,” while referring to a range of positions on the dynamics of causality.

The work’s deeply researched chapters introduce the text and explore its historical and doctrinal contexts, situating it among other early Buddhist writings. A complete commentary accompanies the translation, along with a transcription, edition, and detailed notes on the linguistic features of the text. High-resolution images of the manuscript and an index linking Gāndhārī, Sanskrit, and Pali terms further enhance the volume’s academic value.

A Gāndhārī Abhidharma Text significantly advances the study of early Indian Buddhist scholasticism, transforming our understanding of foundational doctrinal debates. Ideal for specialists in Buddhism, early Indian religions, and manuscript studies, it brings groundbreaking perspectives to the discourse on Buddhist scholastic practice and doctrine.

Collett Cox is professor emerita of Sanskrit and Buddhist Studies at the University of Washington and author of Disputed Dharmas: Early Buddhist Theories on Existence. An Annotated Translation of the Section on Factors Dissociated from Thought from Saṅghabhadra’s Nyāyānusāra.