Dear Andrew, I am not part of Mark’s new project, but have been working on several of these manuscripts as they have been emerging since 2002, and can maybe add some clarifications to your questions.
Unfortunately, not a single one of the many Gāndhārī manuscripts that have come to light since the 1990s has been the product of proper archeological excavation, and this “assemblage” (multiple collections, possibly multiple findspots) is no exception. To my knowledge, the dealer-collectors involved are mostly Pakistani, but there is reason to think that at least some of the manuscripts originate in Afghanistan (cf. Salomon 2020 [“Where are the Gandharan Sūtras?”], 179: “allegedly an ‘old’ collection belonging to an unnamed party in Kabul”). It is to be hoped that now this particular collection is in a public institution, there will also be an opportunity to conduct provenance research on it. I believe, as you seem to do, that photographs of such material should be made universally accessible in a timely fashion, rather than restricting access to “qualified scholars.” Manuscripts like these are part of the world’s shared heritage, after all, and there is a wide variety of interest in them beyond the production of the ultimate scholarly edition, including religious curiosity and worship, and even uses that may seem frivolous to us – like basing art projects on them or putting reproductions on coffee mugs – are legitimate. The Library of Congress showed the way when it recently put its scroll from the same assemblage online for the global public: https://www.loc.gov/item/2018305008 (with the ultimate scholarly edition of it still in progress). It is to be hoped that the Islamabad Museum will follow suit. Meanwhile, Andrew Glass and I have been documenting this manuscript assemblage since the first part of it became known in 2002 in our Catalog of Gāndhārī Texts under (so far) the following entries: University of Washington Libraries: https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0260 Library of Congress: https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0261 Islamabad Museum: https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0282 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0292 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0293 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0294 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0295 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0296 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0297 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0298 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0299 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0300 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0301 Private collection in Pakistan: https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0367 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0368 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0369 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0370 https://gandhari.org/catalog/ckm0371 We look very much forward to more information becoming available now that almost all the manuscripts in question are held in public institutions. All best wishes, Stefan -- Stefan Baums, Ph.D. Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität München _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected] https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
