Tracing Back Manuscript Lineages Through Their Variant Readings: A Case Study from Khom Script Manuscripts of the Dīghanikāya

Abstract

        The Dhammachai Tipiṭaka Project has been working on surveying and collecting more than 100 manuscripts of the Dīghanikāya, which include those from the five major traditions: Sinhalese, Burmese, Khom, Tham and Mon. From these manuscripts, forty-eight manuscripts were chosen for editing a new critical edition. When working with such a number of manuscripts from various traditions, variant readings we have encountered in the course of editing the text have come to provide us a clearer picture of manuscript lineage, i.e. transmission confusion, and help us track back to the original reading more accurately than ever before. The variant readings, both within any one tradition and across traditions, can be used as tiny jigsaw pieces that give us an overall picture of manuscript transmission - in this case the transmission of the Pāli canon. The present paper focuses on studying such jigsaw pieces found in Khom manuscripts of the Dīghanikāya. The study leads us to the conclusion that Thailand has preserved the transmission of Pāli canon throughout its history without discontinuity in spite of crises that can cause manuscripts to be lost or destroyed such as nature and war. In addition, it seems that we have found at least two sub-lineages of Khom manuscript:  pre-Rattanakosin and Rattanakosin period, with the former being closer to Sinhalese and other Southeast Asian traditions than the latter.