Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA) Series
In 1994, Master Sheng Yen (1930-2009), the founder of Dharma Drum Buddhist College, began publishing the series of the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies. The purposes of publishing this
series were to provide a venue for academic research in Buddhist studies supported by scholarships from the Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, to encourage top-quality Buddhist research,
and to cultivate an interest in Buddhist research among the readership of the series. Moreover, by encouraging cooperation with international research institutions, Master Sheng Yen hoped to
foster the academic study of Buddhism in Taiwan.
In keeping with this vision, in order to promote different aspects of exchange in academic research, we at Dharma Drum Buddhist College began to publish three educational series in
2007:
- Dharma Drum Buddhist College Research Series (DDBCRS)
- Dharma Drum Buddhist College Translation Series (DDBCTS)
- Dharma Drum Buddhist College Special Series (DDBCSS)
In July 2014, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education deliberated on the merging of the Dharma Drum College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Dharma Drum Buddhist College into the newly
formed Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA).
The new DILA incarnations of the former three series are now:
- Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts Research Series (DILA-RS)
- Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts Translation Series (DILA-TS)
- Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts Special Series (DILA-SS)
Among our goals is the extensive development of digital publishing and information to adapt to the interactive and hyperconnective environment of the Web 2.0 age. This will allow research
outcomes to be quickly shared and evaluated through the participation of individual users, through such media as blogs, shared tagging, wikis, social networks and so on. Our hope is to work
towards developing an open environment for academic studies (perhaps called Science 2.0) on digital humanities that will be more collaborative and efficient than traditional academic studies.
In this way, the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts will continue to help foster the availability of digital resources for Buddhist studies, the humanities, and the social sciences.
Bhiksu Huimin
President, Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts
15 August, 2014
Preface
This is the third volume of proceedings of the Agama seminars con-vened by the Agama Research Group at the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (formerly Dharma Drum Buddhist College).
On this occasion, during the last weekend of October 2015, we met to discuss various aspects related to the Middle-length Collec-tions of discourses transmitted by different early Buddhist
lineages of reciters.
This volume presents twelve studies, arranged according to the authors' names in alphabetical order. Several contributions are the result of joint ventures between colleagues, reflecting the
cooperative concept of the research seminar.
The volume opens by bringing us straight into the world of the Gandhari Agamas, with Mark Allon and Blair Silverlock's in-depth investigation of the "Sutras in the Senior Kharosthi Manuscript
Col-lection with Parallels in the Majjhima-nikaya and/or the Madhyama-agama". The Senior manuscripts were probably produced by monast-ics of the Dharmaguptaka lineage since several of the texts
in the collection most closely match the versions found in texts attributed to the Dharmaguptakas preserved in Chinese, namely the Dirgha-agama and the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya. Based on the
characteristics of the inscription on the pot that contained the manuscripts and the results of carbon dating, the collection seems to have been assembled between AD 130 and 140 or at least the
bark of the samples tested was cut from the tree or trees at that time. The collection includes four discourses whose primary parallels are found in the Pali or Chinese Middle-Length
Collections. Further, there appear to be several uddana-like references to middle-length discourses in the list of fifty-five discourses preserved on two scrolls. Allon and Silverlock look from
numerous angles into what both classes of material have to tell us about the nature and structure of the Gandharan Madhyama-agama that was known to the community that produced the Senior
collection.