EAP756/4/5/2

A bilingual translation of Sāriputta's Vinayasaṅgaha or Pāḷimuttakavinayavinicchayasaṅgaha, a twelth-century Sinhalese handbook on monastic discipline. Vinayasaṅgaha presented the explanations of the rules of training adapted mostly from the earlier Samantapāsādikā commentary under thematic headings, thus foregoing the organization of rules emic to canonical Pāli texts. From the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, Vinayasaṅgaha enjoyed considerable popularity as a comprehensive Vinaya work among monastic scholars in Burma. Since its compilation in 1684/85, Paramakhemā's work has been the most commonly transmitted translation of Vinayasaṅgaha. Due to its large size, it was always recopied as a set of two manuscript bundles, of which the present exemplar represents the first. No fixed termination boundary seems to have existed for the first bundle, apparently, it was always left to the scribe's discretion how to divide the contents of the text between the bundle. The surviving part of the present manuscript covers chapters from 24 to 28 (Pabbajja- to Vassūpanāyikavinicchayakathā).

Extent and format of original material: A fragmentary bundle of 27 inscribed folios.

Physical characteristics: Incomplete, 7 folios (phoʻ, phaṃ, phāʺ, bi, bu, bū, bai, and boʻ) reduced to mere fragments. 19 folios ([lo], [loʻ], laṃ to voʻ, [vaṃ], [vāʺ], [sa], [sā], and [si]) have fragments missing, gnawed by rats.

Author(s) of original material: Paramakhemā, Ṅa sa rokʻ Ta mā khāʺ Rhaṅʻ.