5e6ed6c5-bc25-4736-ad18-ff2dc84de48e20260405082021Ubiquity Presstech@ubiquitypress.comRUA Metadata ExporterNaliniBalbirGiovanniCiottiA Comparative Study across Pothi ManuscriptsThis volume is the first to attempt a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary analysis of the manuscript cultures implementing the pothi manuscript form (a loosely bound stack of oblong folios). It is the indigenous form by which manuscripts have been crafted in South Asia and the cultural areas most influenced by it, that is to say Central and South East Asia. The volume focuses particularly on the colophons featured in such manuscripts presenting a series of essays enabling the reader to engage in a historical and comparative investigation of the links connecting the several manuscript cultures examined here. Colophons as paratexts are situated at the intersection between texts and the artefacts that contain them and offer a unique vantage point to attain global appreciation of their manuscript cultures and literary traditions. Colophons are also the product of scribal activities that have moved across regions and epochs alongside the pothi form, providing a common thread binding together the many millions of pothis still today found in libraries in Asia and the world over. These contributions provide a systematic approach to the internal structure of colophons, i.e. their ‘syntax’, and facilitate a vital, comparative approach.This volume is the first to attempt a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary analysis of the manuscript cultures implementing the pothi manuscript form (a loosely bound stack of oblong folios). It is the indigenous form by which manuscripts have been crafted in South Asia and the cultural areas most influenced by it, that is to say Central and South East Asia. The volume focuses particularly on the colophons featured in such manuscripts presenting a series of essays enabling the reader to engage in a historical and comparative investigation of the links connecting the several manuscript cultures examined here. Colophons as paratexts are situated at the intersection between texts and the artefacts that contain them and offer a unique vantage point to attain global appreciation of their manuscript cultures and literary traditions. Colophons are also the product of scribal activities that have moved across regions and epochs alongside the pothi form, providing a common thread binding together the many millions of pothis still today found in libraries in Asia and the world over. These contributions provide a systematic approach to the internal structure of colophons, i.e. their ‘syntax’, and facilitate a vital, comparative approach.1231202297831107952339783110795271De GruyterBerlinhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/10.1515/9783110795271https://uplopen.com/books/e/10.1515/9783110795271https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/56fd6f90-d78b-43f7-9ef0-bbf14bf6b099.pdfhttps://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/56fd6f90-d78b-43f7-9ef0-bbf14bf6b099.pdf12312022IIV10.1515/9783110795271-fmhttps://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-fmhttps://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/9b4f0017-7849-45e5-8785-95d060543d6a.pdf12312022VVI10.1515/9783110795271-tochttps://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-tochttps://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/ec929728-9836-4802-98ab-47a1b0a7d43a.pdfGiovanniCiottiNaliniBalbir1231202211210.1515/9783110795271-001https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-001https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/5fc1ad12-4c0a-4541-9b21-87b2526a654a.pdfStefanBaumsThe oldest known colophons in South Asia are preserved in the rock edicts of Aśoka in the northwestern script Kharoṣṭhī. The production of epigraphic colophons continues in the northwest throughout the period of use of the Kharoṣṭhī script and Gāndhārī language, and from the first century CE onwards also becomes visible in the manuscript record of this region. The present article discusses in detail the reading and interpretation of the three preserved Gāndhārī manuscript colophons. It proposes a new reading for the Khotan Dharmapada colophon revealing the true name of its scribe, and suggests a new physical understanding of the Gāndhārī Prajnāpāramitā scroll bringing the placement of its colophon in line with that of the Dharmapada colophon at the top of the recto of both scrolls. The article concludes by showing how the early Gāndhārī practice of colophons is continued in the administrative documents of the Krorayina kingdom as well as in the Buddhist manuscripts from Gilgit, and it places it in a wider historical arc from the Aramaic colophons of the fifth century BCE to the Bactrian colophons of the sixth century CE.12312022134210.1515/9783110795271-002https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-002https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/6616aec4-aa87-48ff-b04f-841f4f8dccc3.pdfCamilloFormigattiThe present study examines colophons in fourteenth-century Nepalese manuscripts. More precisely, it focuses on manuscripts written between 1320 and 1395 CE as part of an ongoing research about the cultural history of Nepal in this pivotal century, particularly its second half. The first part of the article is devoted to a discussion of the Sanskrit terminology for colophon and an explanation of how to distinguish colophons from other paratextual material in manuscripts. The second part provides general remarks on the syntax of Nepalese colophons including a detailed analysis of sixteen elements occurring in the colophons. The third part consists of diplomatic editions of colophons from the corpus considered for this study. The article concludes with short preliminary conclusions based on the material examined.123120224311810.1515/9783110795271-003https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-003https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/231d0d58-a8c5-48ef-a98d-432217e4e14e.pdfNaliniBalbirBased on the colophons found in Jain manuscripts consulted directly during cataloguing-work or in published collections of colophons, the present paper discusses the structure, language, contents, and purpose of this variety of paratexts. They provide rich material for the study of the development of scribal culture from palm-leaf to paper manuscripts. In particular, colophons are a space where Jain actors (laypeople and monastics) display their social and religious presence.1231202211914810.1515/9783110795271-004https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-004https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/124a6c46-78f2-479a-afc0-ca9c62091766.pdfGiovanniCiottiThe study of the linguistic style and register of Tamil used in colophons found in manuscripts hailing from Tamil Nadu and containing Sanskrit, Tamil and Manipravalam texts brings us to the fringes of what is the conventional use of the language. Many idiosyncrasies and systematic variations from what is today accepted as standard are met and force us to reconsider linguistic assumptions. This article focuses on personal names, their syntactic position in the colophons, and the ensuing ambiguity concerning their interpretation. Often one cannot in fact immediately decide whether they refer to scribes, owners, or individuals who played both roles.1231202214917010.1515/9783110795271-005https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-005https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/df658506-8be2-42f5-a041-82127e1c839c.pdfMarcoFranceschiniThis article focuses on the analysis of the dates included in the scribal colophons found in manuscripts written in the Tamil and Tamilian Grantha scripts. In order to better investigate and understand different scribal patterns, a new approach has been adopted: the dates are conceived as modular entities, which can conveniently be segmented into smaller constituents, referred to as ‘submodules’. In turn, these submodules will be scrutinised from the point of view of their constituents and their mutual relationship.1231202217120810.1515/9783110795271-006https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-006https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/742e5d4b-330f-49a8-a1ae-ba5b25bb4d35.pdfJavierSchnakeThe sacred language of Pali is shared by the varying Buddhist traditions of South-East Asia and in this vast geographical area conveys a whole corpus of religious texts, recorded in differing scripts and copied on various kinds of manuscripts. The forms and features of these manuscripts vary according to local expertise as do their colophons, which differ in terms of structure and content. This paper deals with the colophons written in Khom/Mūl scripts, found in manuscripts from Central and Southern Thailand and Cambodia. Based on the data extracted from catalogue listings and the details of some pertinent manuscript collections, this article discusses aspects such as the colophons’ location in the manuscripts, their nature, and linguistic characteristics. A ‘syntax’ of such colophons emerges that appears to contain a ‘variable geometry’, driven rather by practical concerns than premade patterns.1231202220922810.1515/9783110795271-007https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-007https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/56b88311-3a74-4141-ad4f-7b57ab8c817f.pdfVolkerGrabowskyThis article discusses the structure, grammar, and function of colophons in Lao palm-leaf manuscripts containing Buddhist texts. The manuscripts which form the corpus of this study have been selected from the monastic repository of Vat Maha That, one of the largest monasteries in the old royal capital of Luang Prabang. The colophons are almost exclusively written in the Lao vernacular with rather short, standardized Pali phrases at the end. The main emphasis is on the role of scribes and of sponsors in the making of manuscripts. The vast majority of Lao manuscripts are elaborately dated according to the Lao lunar calendar. In the case of manuscripts from Luang Prabang the relatively high number of female sponsors and the presence of royalty among principal lay initiators is a most striking feature.1231202222926010.1515/9783110795271-008https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-008https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/18ced663-0282-41d6-8b45-3beb38e7c254.pdfPeeraPanarutThis paper focuses on colophons written by royal scribes in Siamese manuscripts from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. These royal scribal colophons can reveal not only the manuscripts’ origin in the royal palace, but also the roles of the royal scribes in the book production of the Siamese royal court, as the noble titles of the royal scribes are always recorded in the colophons. Even after the 1932 revolution, the modern royal scribes under the Secretariat of the Cabinet continued to produce official handwritten copies of the constitution and, in the tradition of the royal scribes of the past, ended their manuscripts with colophons.1231202226128010.1515/9783110795271-009https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-009https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/5833f0b5-2b63-4e6f-a1f0-691b7dc5ed02.pdfDick vanMeijMany palm-leaf manuscripts produced in Bali and Lombok in Indonesia include a colophon. These colophons usually, but by no means always, contain the title of the text, the date of writing, the name of the scribe and various additional remarks on where and why the manuscript was written. These colophons are of a bewildering variety and no standards were followed in the information they contain. Some colophons are extremely short while others are very long and contain a wealth of information. Especially colophons in manuscripts written in recent years contain extensive colophons with information that used to be excluded from colophons in older manuscripts. Thus far, no attempt has been made to see if a specific syntax may be detected in these colophons. The present contribution attempts to address this by looking at, and illustrating, many colophons written in Javanese, Balinese, Old Javanese and Sasak. The conclusion is that these colophons do not abide to any strict syntactic or other rules albeit some preferences seem to have been followed.1231202228132210.1515/9783110795271-010https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-010https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/8ab896da-0974-4f09-9959-14711e5d3852.pdfDorjiWangchukThe value of Tibetan colophons - found in manuscript, xylographic, and other forms of editions of texts pertaining to allochthonous (i.e., translated and mainly Indo-Tibetan) and autochthonous literature, different periods, genres, fields of knowledge, and subject matter - as valuable sources of information has long been recognized in the past. A comprehensive and representative study of the topic from both a diachronic and a synchronic perspective, however, appears to remain a desideratum. This contribution merely attempts to provide an overview of the syntax of Tibetan colophons. It focusses on defining the term ‘colophon’, and discussing various types of colophon (i.e., author/authorship colophon, translator’s/translation colophon, editor’s/edition colophon, printing colophon, scribe’s/copyist’s/calligrapher’s colophon, treasure/revelation colophon, and miscellaneous (sub)types of colophon), structure of colophon, and various kinds of information found in the Tibetan colophons.1231202232334610.1515/9783110795271-011https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-011https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/05321a45-8e8e-4fed-8f8c-2d8f1b88a218.pdfGeorges-JeanPinaultColophons have rarely been preserved in Tocharian manuscripts, as the final leaves of pustaka format manuscripts are often destroyed or lost. The corpus features, however, a significant number of sub-colophons, i.e. colophons written at the end of the sections of a longer Buddhist work. A particular instance are those colophons of the chapters of the drama about Maitreyasamiti in Tocharian A, that may be compared with the parallel colophons in the Old Uyghur text Maitrisimit nom bitig, translated from Tocharian. In addition to the author and translator names, these colophons contain the name and the number of the chapters. Several colophons have been transmitted with a text containing the names of the donors who sponsored manuscript copy. This mention is frequently accompanied by wishes and words of praise, highlighting the reward donors and their family expect from copying a sacred text. Similar instances are to be found in manuscripts in Tocharian B. In both Tocharian languages, one may observe the development of writing colophons in verse, as a literary practice that certainly gained significance for Buddhist culture in the Tarim Basin during the second half of the first millennium CE.1231202234737210.1515/9783110795271-012https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-012https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/0f1742b0-4412-4c9e-8f99-afd6a39b2253.pdfYukiyoKasaiTwo different Buddhist traditions played an essential role in introducing Buddhism to the Uyghurs - the Tocharian and the Chinese - both of which cultivated their respective Buddhist cultures in the Turfan area. Gradually, the Uyghurs learned increasingly more of Chinese Buddhist culture, due to a close diplomatic relationship the neighbouring oasis state of Dunhuang (敦煌), and the majority of Old Uyghur Buddhist texts were translated from Chinese. However, Old Uyghur book forms and donor colophons show that the Uyghurs did not simply imitate Chinese Buddhist culture. Instead, they developed their own book and manuscript culture from a diverse context, drawing elements from the region’s various Buddhist traditions. Moreover, traces even of an Iranian influence can be perceived in the Buddhist colophons - transmitted via Manichaeism.1231202237339810.1515/9783110795271-013https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-013https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/d106c84a-60d1-4a2a-b591-32402df4aec7.pdf1231202239940610.1515/9783110795271-014https://uplopen.com/chapters/e/10.1515/9783110795271-014https://uplopen.com/books/5732/files/1b22e8ea-c3cf-498c-bd20-df7ef9cf2202.pdf