Speaker:  Prof. Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Department of Indology & Tibetology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich

 

Chair: Dr. Himanshu Prabha Ray

 

The rather special relation between oral and written transmission is a distinctive feature of ancient Indian civilization, and it appears that until the first century BCE script was used only for administrative purposes. According to our present knowledge, the Buddhists were among the first who employed writing for transmitting and preserving their literature. This is suggested by Indic manuscripts that were unearthed about twenty years ago in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These are by far the oldest ever found, and they preserve Buddhist texts