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Abhidharma and Commentary
Gandhari Abhidharma fragments, commentarial texts, and doctrinal treatises from early Buddhist manuscript culture.
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Texts
Abhidharma — Section 1A Gandhāri Abhidharma treatise on religious practice and the knowledge of suffering — the first section of a Sarvāstivāda scholastic text from the British Library birch-bark scrolls. Discusses the four aspects of suffering (impermanence, suffering, emptiness, non-self) and the practice of gradual clear comprehension.Abhidharma — Section 2The philosophical core of the Gandhāri Abhidharma — a debate on whether past and future dharmas truly exist. The defining question of the Sarvāstivāda school: does everything exist in all three times? From British Library Fragment 28, 1st century CE birch bark.Abhidharma — Section 3The fundamental proposition 'everything exists' — a Gandhāri Abhidharma debate on what 'everything' means and what 'existence' means. The opponent's four specifications and four explications systematically dismantled.Abhidharma — Section 4Religious practice across the three times — the final section of a Gandhāri Abhidharma treatise connecting philosophical debate on the existence of dharmas back to actual Buddhist practice.Commentary on the Samgitisutta — BL 15A Gandhāri commentary on the Saṃgītisūtra — one of the great doctrinal compendia of early Buddhism. Written on birch bark in Kharoṣṭhī script, dating to the 1st century CE. The commentary systematically analyzes doctrinal sets of threes through sevens, providing word-by-word definitions and doctrinal exegesis using the method of categorial reduction. From the British Library Kharoṣṭhī collection. The closest parallel to this root text is the Dharmaguptaka Chinese translation of 413 CE.The Doctrinal Discourse — BL 10A Gandhāri Buddhist doctrinal discourse preserved on a birch-bark scroll (British Library Fragment 10), dating to the 1st–2nd century CE. Five sections survive, each organized into four pādas with quotation and exegesis: the Noble Eightfold Path, habits and disciplines, good and bad people, emptiness, and Buddha-dwelling. A rare specimen of Gandhāran Buddhist scholastic prose. First free English translation from Gandhāri Prakrit.The Minor Verse Commentary — BL 13A minor Gandhāri verse commentary written by a second scribe in the empty space at the end of British Library scroll 13. Six sections survive, each analyzing a well-known early Buddhist verse through doctrinal exegesis. Root verses parallel the Gandhāri Dharmapada, the Pali Dhammapada, and the Sanskrit Udānavarga. Dating to the 1st century CE. First free English translation from Gandhāri Prakrit.The Third Treatise — BC 6The third of three unique Gandhāri Mahāyāna treatises from the Bajaur Collection — a commentary connecting the teachings of BC 4 and BC 11 on non-attachment and the bodhisattva path. From fragment 6, 2nd century CE birch bark. No parallel exists in any other Buddhist tradition.The Verse Commentary — BL 4The earliest surviving Buddhist commentary in any language — a Gandhāri verse commentary (nirdesa) on selections from early Buddhist canonical verses, with running exegesis providing word explanations and doctrinal analysis. Written on birch bark in Kharoṣṭhī script, dating to the 1st century CE. From the British Library Kharoṣṭhī collection. Sixteen sections of verse and commentary survive.