Sanskrit manuscripts of the Saundarananda have been found in Nepal and Central Asia. They have variants which cannot be overlooked in passage 16.30–34. The Nepalese Ms. supports Sarvāstivāda doctrine. On the other hand, the Central Asian text much more closely fits the contexts and corresponds with the Chinese version which has been recently discovered. In this paper, I suggest the possibility that the Central Asian Ms. preserves the original form and the Nepalese Ms. was redacted in order to fit Sarvāstivāda doctrine.
