A Newly Available Sanskrit Manuscript of the Rewritten Abhidharmakośakārikā

Abstract

In 2016, a new manuscript of the Sanskrit text of the Abhidharmakośakārikā (AKK) in the Potala Palace, along with photographs, was published by the Tibetan Palm Leaf Manuscript Institution (西蔵貝葉経研究所), and was determined to be identical to the Tibetan translation of the AKK. However, I have discovered that this manuscript has various variants with resepect to the Gokhale manuscript.

In this paper, I present the original Sanskrit text and the translation of two interesting passages (IV.3, V.23) that have been corrected to conform to the Sarvāstivāda doctrine. I point out that the two passages are related to Paramārtha’s (Zhendi 真諦) translation of the AKK.