Bajaur Collection Fragment 8 (Gandhārī)
This short hymn of five verses in praise of the Buddha Śākyamuni was found among the Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts, a group of Buddhist texts on birch bark from the ancient Gandhāra region (modern northwest Pakistan). The manuscript dates to the 1st–2nd century CE and is written in Gandhāri Prakrit using the Kharoṣṭhī script.
The poem is composed in the Vasantatilakā meter and follows a liturgical pattern: each verse opens with "yeṇa" ("by whom" or "by which") — a relative pronoun construction that builds a crescendo of the Buddha's qualities before resolving in the final verse with the name Śākyamuni. The hymn praises the Bodhisattva path of immeasurable giving, virtue, patience, and meditation across uncountable eons, then celebrates the Buddha's awakening and its cosmic effects — the illumination of the world, the trembling of a thousand realms, and the liberation of beings from suffering.
This is a Good Works Translation from Gandhāri Prakrit. Translated from the transliteration published by Stefan Baums (LMU Munich, 2020). No prior complete English translation existed in freely available form.
Gospel Reading
He who through uncountable eons, immeasurable,
has always given gifts —
virtue, patience, bravery, meditation always developed —
he who through wisdom has seen under the power of the aggregates:
he is worthy of honor.
He by whom, like the sun upon the surface of the earth, a light was shed —
beings were freed from suffering, he was the equal among equals.
Throughout all the realms of the world, in their palaces hanging low with garlands,
goddesses and asura women were shaken by the sound of his fame, as if lifted by the wind.
Even now, the stūpas of the great sage —
on whose surfaces are piled nets of gold and jewels —
radiate the white brilliance of the fixed mass of Kailāsa,
rising up like the peaks of Meru.
He by whose birth a thousand realms were illuminated and shook —
may I release all beings from suffering.
He by whom family life was abandoned and he went forth as a homeless one —
to that Śākyamuni, who is to be filled with all jewels,
I offer worship in the three realms.
Scholarly Translation
The following preserves all lacunae faithfully. [...] marks where the birch bark is damaged or lost.
1.
He who through uncountable eons, immeasurable,
has always given gifts,
virtue, patience, [...] bravery, [...] meditation always developed —
he who through wisdom, under the power of the aggregates, has seen [...]
[...] is worthy of honor.
2.
He by whom, like the sun upon the surface of the earth, a light was shed,
beings were freed from suffering — he was the equal among equals —
throughout all the realms of the world, in their palaces hanging low with garlands,
goddesses and asura women [...] were shaken by the sound of his fame, as if lifted by the wind.
3.
Even now, the stūpas of the great sage [...] grief [...]
on whose surfaces are piled nets of gold and jewels —
they radiate the white brilliance of the fixed mass of Kailāsa,
rising up like the peaks of Meru.
4.
He by whose birth-arising a thousand realms were illuminated and shook —
[...] I [...] release beings from suffering.
5.
He by whom family life was abandoned and he went forth as a homeless one —
to that Śākyamuni, who is to be filled with all jewels,
I offer worship in the three realms.
Colophon
Good Works Translation from Gandhāri Prakrit. Translated from the Bajaur Collection Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 8 (BC 8 = CKM 271), dating to the 1st–2nd century CE. Source transliteration published by Stefan Baums in Gāndhārī Stotras: British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragment BL 5C and Bajaur Collection Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 8 (LMU Munich, 2020). A stotra (hymn of praise) in the Vasantatilakā meter, this text belongs to the earliest known Buddhist devotional poetry from Gandhāra. Lacunae marked with [...] indicate damage to the birch-bark manuscript.
Translated and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2025.
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Source Text: Gandhārī Prakrit Transliteration
Gandhāri Prakrit transliteration from BC 8 (Bajaur Collection Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 8). Published by Stefan Baums, LMU Munich, 2020. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
[1] yeṇa karpa asaṃkhea atuliya daṇaś ca dino sada ◊ śila kṣaṃti + + virya + + + dhyaṇa sada bhaviδa yeṇa praṃña kaṃdhavaśia d(ri)ṭha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + puyaraho
[2] yeṇa aho dharaṇidharae va kayo ohasida ◊ satva duhe vimuida samasamana ahuṣi sarvalokadhatu bhavana ladavhilaṃbi surasuri + + + + yasa ghoṣeṇa vadudhuda
[3] ājāvi śogani mahāmuṇisa ◊ thūbāni svārnamaṇijālatalācitāni kelāsahāsadhruasācayapāḍarābhāṃ bhrāyāṃti meruśikharāṇi va ūnadāni
[4] yeṇa jadamatreṇa ohaida makh[i] trisahasa y[a]kaṃpida ◊ vaya ? ? ? ? ? ? ? śe aho moyiśa satva [duhe]
[5] y[ṇa] uita {ka} ñativasadia nikhato aṇagario ◊ ta[s]a śakamuṇisa sarvaradana pu(r)y[a] trime [dha]d[ue]
Source Colophon
Gandhāri Prakrit source text from Bajaur Collection Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 8 (BC 8 = CKM 271). Birch-bark manuscript, 1st–2nd century CE, from the Bajaur region of northwest Pakistan (ancient Gandhāra). Currently held by the University of Peshawar. Transliteration by Stefan Baums, published in Gāndhārī Stotras (LMU Munich, 2020). Freely available at the Buddhist Manuscripts from Gandhāra project, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
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