Early Biographical Narratives of the Buddha: An Edition and Study of Two Related Texts from the Robert Senior Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 24

Abstract

This thesis presents a study of Robert Senior fragment 24 (RS 24), a Gāndhārī birch-bark scroll written in Kharoṣṭhī script. The manuscript preserves two narratives connected to the early biography of the Buddha: the story of the nāga Elapatra and the young brahmin Nala (Skt Nālaka), and the story of the merchants Trivusa and Valia (Skt Trapusa and Bhallika). Through comparison with Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese parallels, this study examines the extant versions of these narratives and their relationships to the Vinaya, sūtra, and commentarial traditions. The thesis argues that the narratives preserved in RS 24 belong to an early stratum of Buddhist biographical literature prior to the formation of more continuous and systematized Buddha biographies. RS 24 thus preserves important evidence for the transmission and development of Buddhist narrative literature in Gāndhāra during the early centuries of the Common Era.