Examples of sāntika-, santika-, and antika- in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka

Abstract

The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Saddhp) is one of the representative sūtras in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. There occur many Middle Indo-Arya (MIA) expressions in the text. There are many different Saddhp manuscripts, which can be generally classified into the Central Asia and the Gilgit-Nepal recensions. I have found so far an example of MIA krīḍāpanaka- / classical Sanskrit krīḍanaka-, which supports the hypothesis advocated by Kern and Edgerton of the progressive Sanskritization of the text in MIA. By investigating the six major manuscripts of the two recensions, I find another sample of a synonym, namely sāntika-, santika-, antika-, which supports the above hypothesis: MIA sāntika-, MIA santika- (=Pāli) appear in the older manuscript parts, with classical Sanskrit antika- in the new corresponding part of the manuscripts. There may be a possibility to acquire a new viewpoint for elucidating the formation process of the Saddhp by extending and evolving these investigations further.