Fragment 1, Parts 1-3 (Frames 1, 16 and 12)

1. General condition: The long scroll was possibly folded in the middle. This caused the loss of big portions of its left-hand side. The remaining portions which cover nearly 60 % of the whole text are quite legible. The scroll contained originally a single text which covered the entire obverse and one line in the beginning of the reverse. Later on a second text was added on the reverse. Like in other instances of manuscripts in this format, the margin was sewn.
2. Measurements:    17,5 cm x 70,5 cm
                                76 lines on r, 21 lines on v
                                42 a/l on r, 20 a/l on v
3. Hands: Scribe 1 (recto, one line verso), scribe 2 (verso).
4. Contents: First text (scribe 1): Gāndhārī parallel to the Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅgasutta (Majjhimanikāya no. 142) / Gautamīsūtra. Second text (scribe 2): unidentified rakṣā/dhāraṇī like text.

Content

Recto: Canonical text/A text from the Madhyamāgama

The only text of the Bajaur Collection which can certainly be identified with a canonical sūtra is represented by fragment 1. This text is a Gāndhārī version of a sūtra parallel to the Pāli Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅgasutta given as No. 142 of its Majjhimanikāya (MN III 253-257). In the Chinese translation of the Madhyamāgama (T 26), prepared by Gautama Saṅghadeva in 397-398, it is No. 180 (T I 721c21) and bears the title 瞿曇彌經 qu tan mi jing transliterating Skt. Gautamīsūtra. Another translation into Chinese from an independent version was prepared much later by Dānapāla in 1001 (T 84). Its Chinese title (分別布施經) corresponds to the Pāli name of the text.

A single small fragment from the Turfan collection is all that remained of a Sanskrit version of this sūtra (Waldschmidt SHT 3, Nr. 979). Both versions – the Chinese and the Skt. ones – belong to the Sarvāstivādins, whose Madhyamāgama is the only one preserved in the Chinese canon. Another version of this sūtra is cited in Śamathadeva’s commentary on the Abhidharmakośa, the Upāyikā Abhidharmakośaṭīkā (cf. Mejor 1991: 63-74), extent today only in the Tibetan translation of Jayaśrī. This translation is now part of different recensions of the Tanjur (e.g. P 5595, D 4094). As was shown by Schmithausen (1987: 338-343), Śamathadeva’s quotations show generally stronger parallels to Mūlasarvāstivādin texts preserved in the Chinese Saṃyuktāgama than to the extent texts of the Sarvāstivādin Madhyamāgama. It is therefore highly probable that Śamathadeva quoted from a Madhyamāgama of the Mūlasarvāstivādin tradition.

Cf. Strauch 2007: 19-21, 1.1.