Gandhāran Buddhist Texts

At a glance

History, context & interpretation

The text and its story

Fragile birch-bark scrolls bought by the British Library in 1994 and found elsewhere since. They are the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts and among the oldest from South Asia.

Traditional attribution

Scriptures of the early Buddhist schools of the northwest.

Historical scholarship

Birch-bark scrolls copied by monks and buried in clay pots.

Context and curiosity

They may have been buried like worn-out relics, much as old Torah scrolls are.

Chronology and transmission

This text belongs to Buddhism (Gandhara (Afghanistan & Pakistan)). The catalogue gives its approximate dating as c. 1st century BCE – 3rd century CE and original language or script as Gāndhārī (Kharosthi script). The dated manuscript witnesses and traditional claims may not refer to the same historical event.

Continue exploring

Sources and further reading

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandh%C4%81ran_Buddhist_texts

Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.