The Syntax of Colophons: A Comparative Study across Pothi Manuscripts

Description

Open Access This volume is the first to attempt a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary analysis of the manuscript cultures implementing the pothi manuscript form (a loosely bound stack of oblong folios). It is the indigenous form by which manuscripts have been crafted in South Asia and the cultural areas most influenced by it, that is to say Central and South East Asia. The volume focuses particularly on the colophons featured in such manuscripts presenting a series of essays enabling the reader to engage in a historical and comparative investigation of the links connecting the several manuscript cultures examined here. Colophons as paratexts are situated at the intersection between texts and the artefacts that contain them and offer a unique vantage point to attain global appreciation of their manuscript cultures and literary traditions. Colophons are also the product of scribal activities that have moved across regions and epochs alongside the pothi form, providing a common thread binding together the many millions of pothis still today found in libraries in Asia and the world over. These contributions provide a systematic approach to the internal structure of colophons, i.e. their ‘syntax’, and facilitate a vital, comparative approach. Contents Introduction Part I: South Asia North India The Earliest Colophons in the Buddhist Northwest Colophons in Fourteenth-Century Nepalese Manuscripts: Materials for the Study of the Nepalese Renaissance (I) On the Syntax of Colophons in Jain Palm-Leaf and Paper Manuscripts from Western India South India Scribe, Owner, or Both? Some Ambiguities in the Interpretations of Personal Names in Colophons from Tamil Nadu A Modular Framework for the Analysis of the Dates Found in Manuscripts Written in the Tamil and Tamilian Grantha Scripts Part II: Southeast Asia Mainland Khom/Mūl Script Manuscripts from Central Thailand and Cambodia: Colophons with a Variable Geometry? The Grammar and Function of Colophons in Lao Manuscripts: The Case of the Vat Maha That Collection, Luang Prabang The Structure, Functions, and Tradition of Siamese Royal Scribal Colophons Maritime Colophons in Palm-Leaf Manuscripts from Bali and Lombok (Indonesia) Part III: Central Asia The Syntax of Tibetan Colophons: An Overview Colophons in Tocharian Manuscripts Central Asian and Iranian Influence in Old Uyghur Buddhist Manuscripts: Book Forms and Donor Colophons Indexes