ABSTRACT
Until recently, only one manuscript representing the literature of the Gandha¯ran tradition of the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent was known, namely the “Ga¯ndha¯rı¯ Dharmapada” (to be discussed below). However, within the last fifteen years, four major collections of Gandha¯ran manuscripts have come to light and are accessible for study,1 so that by now over one hundred specimens in all, most of them more or less fragmentary, are known. To date only a fraction of these new manuscripts have been fully published,2 but overall descriptions and catalogues of three of the major collections are or will shortly be available,3 and detailed editions of many of the remaining manuscripts are in progress.
