Fragment 6, parts 1-3 (Frames 29, 30 and 32)

1. General condition: The fragments are part of a very much deteriorated scroll. It is now preserved in three parts of only 7 to 8 lines on both sides, written by the same scribe and containing probably a single text. The letters are very weak and partly not legible at all. Part 2 is the best preserved part of the scroll and seems to contain the final portion  of the text.
2. Measurements:   16,5 cm x 26, 5 cm
                               ca. 26 lines on r, ca. 21 lines on v
                               32 a/l on r and v
3. Hands: Both sides are written by the same scribe (scribe 19).
4. Contents: Dogmatical literature (?). As far as one can judge from the surviving passages the text shows a close resemblance to fragments 4 and 11 using the same terminology and even whole phrases with identical wording. We therefore provisionally ascribe fragment 6 to the same genre – dogmatical literature. A remark at the end of fr. 6, part 2 could indicate that the text of this fragment was copied from another, partly destroyed scroll. It reads: śeṣapatade likhidae „This was written from the remaining manuscript“. Possibly fr. 6 is a copy of another scroll.

Content

Non-canonical scholastic texts, Group A

The text belongs to a group of not identified scholastic texts which share a certain number of common features (= group A). This group is formed by the fragments 4, 6 and 11, whereby fragments 4 and 11 are likely to be parts of the same scroll and text. Both are written by the same scribe and contain partially identical or closely related passages. With regard to its contents fragment 6 which is, however, very poorly preserved belongs to the same (class of) text(s). According to its script and format it is, however, part of a different scroll.

A major part of the text is devoted to the definition of different kinds of sukha / suha “happiness, bliss” and their relationship to each other and to dukha “suffering”. Repeatedly sukha is characterized as dukhavidimiśa (Skt. duḥkhavyatimiśra) “mixed with suffering”. Among others, terms like viveǵasuha (Skt. vivekasukha), veragasuha (Skt. vairāgyasukha), kamasuha (Skt. kāmasukha) are used to characterize these types of bliss.

Cf. Strauch 2007: 34-35, ch. 4.2.2.